Joystiq

PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) posted in their blog today about the Sony goat incident from the weekend. With quite a bit of temperance for PETA, they apparently got the memo of the aftermath, and didn't make an official public statement (i.e. press release to the planet). Two points to PETA for knowing who Jack Thompson is and saying they've "always sided with the video game industry against the Jack Thompsons of this world who are out to make a name for themselves by blaming gamers for all of society's problems." Of course they close the post by saying, "Sony is evidently recalling the entire 80,000 print run of the PlayStation magazine in which this story featured, though it's frankly a bit late for the victim of the stunt at this stage." Come on, it's PETA, they gotta say that.

Joystiq spoke with Daphna Nachminovitch, Director of Domestic Animal and Wildlife Rescue & Information at PETA, and she told us that they received several dozen emails and phone calls about the incident over the weekend as the story broke. She says that the reason PETA didn't make a public statement is because the public was already well aware of the incident and clearly found it objectionable. Nachminovitch says, "It was something so frivolous and idiotic. I think they misread their audience because we've received a lot of statements and it doesn't look like the stunt was helpful to the audience they were trying to promote to for the game ... I know with Sony's reputation it was surprising to see something with this magnitude. Looking at the website [for the game] I don't see the connection. I don't understand how this would appeal to the people who would want this video game."

Nachminovitch was glad to see that Sony made a statement so quickly and hopes that they don't do something like this again in the future. She also noticed that there were topless women at the party and jokes, "Shouldn't that have been enough? There's no need to display an animal like that for an audience when topless women are walking around, I'm sure the audience found that far more appealing."