Written by PETA
We are happy to report that Zynga, the creator of the phenomenally popular Facebook crime game Mafia Wars, has nixed the pit bull as a fighting tool. Countless social gamers stopped plowing their FarmVille fields long enough to voice their objections to Zynga about the game's negative depiction of this most used-and-abused breed, and the company quickly responded in just the right way.
We'll be sending Zynga a thank-you note and a box of vegan chocolates as a token of our appreciation, and Mafia Wars "maniacs" can voice their approval to Zynga's customer service center.
Written by Jennifer O'Connor
The popular Facebook game Mafia Wars has just introduced a new game "tool": animals to use in the fights, including but not limited to snarling pit bulls.
Sure, it's just a game, but perpetuating the image of pit bulls as fighting machines is reckless and wrong. It is particularly troubling in light of the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down a law banning the distribution of videos glorifying such cruelty to animals. Pit bulls already face a public relations battle and are the most abused breed of dog. PETA's fieldworkers see pit bulls in horrific conditions every day. They are frequently kept chained or penned, they are taunted and trained to be aggressive, and they are beaten and starved—sometimes to death.
This is a rare, er, misfire for Zynga, the maker of lots of popular online games (you might have heard of a little one called Farmville). Zynga recently started offering special bulldogs in YoVille, the proceeds of which are donated to the San Francisco SPCA. So let's hope that it will listen to our appeal. You can also send the company your own polite comments asking it to leave animals out of Mafia Wars.
Thanks for all your support and your fantastic comments about this awful addition to Mafia Wars. Please be sure to let Zynga know how you feel, too, by sending a polite comment to Zynga's customer help center.
If you have a general question for PETA and would like a response, please e-mail Info@peta.org. If you need to report cruelty to an animal, please click here. If you are reporting an animal in imminent danger and know where to find the animal and if the abuse is taking place right now, please call your local police department. If the police are unresponsive, please call PETA immediately at 757-622-7382 and press 2.
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