PETA Parodies, Attacks Cooking Mama Series

Animal right organization PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) released Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals, an unauthorized online minigame collection parodying Majesco's Cooking Mama casual game series. PETA accuses the franchise's recipes of relying too much on animal products. Mama Kills Animals also seeks to remind players that "over 40 million turkeys" are killed each year during the holiday season in factory farms. PETA says that the turkeys are raised in cruel conditions and provides "bonus" undercover video from a turkey slaughterhouse in the game. The release of PETA's game comes ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday next week and Cooking Mama: World Kitchen's release for the Wii this week. The organization accuses Cooking Mama's recipes of being "so heavy on dishes that are made from dead animals that the only things missing are the blood and gore." Developed by Taito, the Cooking Mama titles for Wii and Nintendo DS have been an extraordinary success for Majesco. Earlier this year, the publisher reported 1.6 million units sold for the franchise in the U.S. since it debuted in September 2006. As with the spoofed titles, Mama Kills Animals has players scoring points by assembling a meal, but they'll need to do so through bloody but cartoonish minigames, like pulling out a bird's intestines and cutting off a turkey's head. Once the game is completed, the mascot Mama character decides to have a tofu-turkey instead. In addition to offering vegetarian Thanksgiving recipes in the game, PETA encourages players to contact Majesco and ask for a Cooking Mama game with only vegetarian recipes. "We're having a bit of fun at Mama's expense, but there's nothing funny about the suffering endured by turkeys and other animals who are killed for food," says PETA's Joel Bartlett. "With all the delicious vegan alternatives available, there's no need to make the carcass of a tormented bird the centerpiece of your Thanksgiving table."