I really wish this was a joke but sadly it's real. PETA, aka the People Eating Tasty Animals (hah), have setup a mini-website to say that while the Tanooki suit is all fun and games, tanukis in real life are getting skinned alive. They even setup a flash game on their website to save the skin of a tanuki from a flying blood covered Mario. Apparently by Mario wearing a Tanooki suit he is advocating the murder of these raccoon dogs. If this is advocating the murder of raccoon dogs I really feel bad about those frog suits I was commandeering in Mario 3...
UPDATE: Apparently PETA had a backlash from the gaming community and they have issued a statement to Eurogamer stating that it was "just a joke". They also claim that they are huge Mario fans as well. It is just me or do I not buy that this was a joke? I have a feeling this was just a typical PETA campaign gone bad. Sorry PETA, clearly nobody got your joke...
