Nintendo’s Cow-Milking Game Prompts PETA to Push for Realism

True-to-Life Version Would Include ‘Rape Racks’ and Mourning Mother Cows

For Immediate Release:
March 30, 2017

Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382

After a Vermont dairy farm and museum claimed that Nintendo’s new 1-2-Switch cow-milking game was too “easy,” the company accepted its challenge to a milking competition—and now, PETA is challenging that the game is too pleasant.

In a letter to Nintendo posted to Facebook this morning, PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—points out that an accurate representation of the dairy industry would include the violent insemination of female cows on what the industry itself calls a “rape rack.” The group also suggests including the cries of mother cows, who produce milk to feed their babies—and who bellow out for days after their young are taken away from them so that their milk can be consumed by humans instead.

“Nintendo can clearly handle a challenge, and PETA’s challenge for it is to be honest about the dairy industry’s torment of mother cows and their babies,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “If eyewitness video footage from filthy dairy farms would be too upsetting for players, perhaps Nintendo can choose a new subject instead of sugarcoating cruelty to animals.”

For more information, please visit PETA.org.

PETA’s letter to Nintendo follows and is also available here.

March 30, 2017

Dear Nintendo,

I’m writing on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and our more than 5 million members and supporters worldwide. Our staffers and activists have recently played the cow-milking minigame for Nintendo Switch and realized that you’ve taken all the cruelty out of milking. We have more than 35 years of experience investigating dairy farms where cows are exploited for their milk, and it is NEVER that pleasant for these animals. Can we have some realism here, please?

Following the announcement that you’ve accepted Billings Farm & Museum’s challenge, we’re hoping you’ll listen to some of our feedback as well.

To simulate cow milking accurately, 1-2-Switch would need to show all aspects of dairy farming, including the violent insemination of female cows on what the dairy industry itself refers to as a “rape rack.” Cows produce milk to feed their babies, but their young are torn away from them soon after birth so that human beings can use their milk instead. A mother cow will bellow for her calf for days after the baby is taken from her. Perhaps you could add these sounds to your game in order to remind players that by drinking milk, people support an industry that separates mothers from their babies.

We’d be happy to provide you with video footage of the filthy conditions that cows endure on farms for you to include in your game. If you think that the gruesome nature of this would be too upsetting, we suggest that instead of sugarcoating the subject, Nintendo switch to simulating activities in which no animals suffer. (For example, an almond milk minigame in which you pick almonds could be quite fun.) Is your team brave enough to face the truth?

Very truly yours,

Ingrid E. Newkirk

President

PETA