April the 1st Comes Early?

Of all the strange things that have been happening as of late, here’s another. Yesterday it emerged that the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), in the UK, had written to the Games Workshop CEO, Kevin Rountree, asking that the miniature war-gaming brand ban 'fur' garments from all Warhammer characters.[1] They go on to claim “while we appreciate that they are fictional, draping them in what looks like a replica of a dead animal sends the message that wearing fur is acceptable – when, in fact, it has no more place in 2017 than it would in the year 40,000.”[2]

This is not satire.
Source: PETA

Before I continue I should point out my personal stance on animal rights issues. I believe animals should not be treated as commodities or exploited. I live in vegan household and the majority of the time I follow a vegan lifestyle (and when I’m not, I’m vegetarian). I believe that conversations need to be had about our relationship with the other species that we share a planet with. I also believe ill thought out actions and attention seeking publicity stunts by people like PETA benefit only PETA and undermine the serious and hard work people are doing to raise awareness and promote active change.

So back to Warhammer 40K. I have no intention of getting deeply into the lore, as I've been out of the loop for some time. I'm more Quorn than Khorne these days but even so, I’m pretty sure there isn't any active promotion of the exploitation of animals within the game worlds of the Games Workshop. To be honest what they’re targeting exactly seems a bit of a muddled mess. Are beast races in fantasy setting included or indeed the fantasy setting as a whole? What about historical miniatures made by other companies?

And then there’s the target audience of the Games Workshop. Are they more likely to wear fur or condone the wearing of fur after seeing these miniatures? I would say not, the war gaming audience doesn’t exactly strike me as big wearers of fur. I’d like to see some genuine, actual research, from PETA along such lines. Do plastic figures dressed in fur make people less compassionate towards animals? If such research took place and showed a link, then I’d be prepared to listen (and write a retraction to this whole post).

In the midst of all this PETA miss some genuine issues which they could have picked up on. As I mentioned before, things get missed in clamour for attention. Such as, animal products within items like paintbrushes, or the environmental impact of microbeads in textured paints and the plastic production itself. These are issues and criticisms which could have been legitimately raised to the Games Workshop but now will mostly likely be missed in the ridicule which is sure to follow this empty gesture.

And just so I'm not completely hating on them, their recipes section is pretty good, do go check that out.


References

 1. PETA UK (2017) PETA Asks Games Workshop to Ban 'Fur' from Warhammer Characters. [Online] Available from: PETA UK [Accessed 31 January 2017]

 2. PETA UK (2017) Why is PETA Asking Games Workshop to Make Warhammer Fur-Free? [Online] Available from: PETA UK [Accessed 31 January 2017]