PETA holds seal-clubbing protest in WOW

By Oli Welsh Published 8 April, 2009

Canadians portrayed as Undead Horde.

Animal rights organisation PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is taking its protest against Canada's annual slaughter of baby seals for their skins into World of Warcraft.

This Saturday, on the North American WhisperWind server, players will have an opportunity to combat four Horde seal killers as they go about killing baby seals in the Howling Fjord zone.

"Thrall refused to ban the slaughter of seals, despite multiple requests from the Alliance to do so, because Orgrimmar stands to make a large profit from the fur," said PETA's release, inventing its own little bit of Warcraft lore.

Going by PETA's YouTube channel, it has chosen to portray the seal-clubbers as Undead with backwoods Canadian accents.

PETA could be said to be returning Blizzard's compliment. The Wrath of the Lich King expansion includes a series of quests for a faction called DEHTA, or Druids for the Ethical and Humane Treatment of Animals, in which players fight trappers and free baby mammoths.

If players kill animals themselves within range of a DEHTA representative, they are tainted with blood and instantly attacked.

You can get involved at PETA's Facebook event.

Picture of Oli.

About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (29) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Eraysor #1 3 years ago

    I really hope a ton of Alliance players get together and gank the shit out of them.

  • Dizzy #2 3 years ago

    >in which players fight trappers and free baby mammoths.

    And dress up as Murlocs.

    >I really hope a ton of Alliance players get together and gank the shit out of them.

    I think that is the idea behind it all. Protect the seals! Gank the evil undead baby-killers!
    Edited by 1 at 08/04/09 @ 10:25

  • chessboxer #3 3 years ago

    I have lost what little respect I had for PETA. They are becoming as annoying as Jack Thompson and need to find something better to do with their time than to complain about animal cruelty in games.

  • sneetch #4 3 years ago

    @Dizzy
    >in which players fight trappers and free baby mammoths.

    And dress up as Murlocs.

    /screeching halt

    Hang on, gotta reactivate my account.

  • sneetch #5 3 years ago

    OK, there is some serious time travelling shit going on around here, half my posts are coming through an hour in the future.

  • FWB #6 3 years ago

    My in game name is... Sealclubber. No joke.

  • VicViper #7 3 years ago

    We should stop clubbing seals, They never pay for their round

  • jim1975 #8 3 years ago

    for a great view on PETA watch penn and tellers bullshit episode on them.

  • Eraysor #9 3 years ago

    As an aside, the quest where you dress up as a murloc is totally epic.

  • Toothball #10 3 years ago

    What is it with PETA and games recently? Their last couple of efforts seem to have been more promotion for the game they are campaigning against. What are they even trying to achieve with this?

  • mckiex #11 3 years ago

    What's wrong with all use?! Use do relies that you are all flaming a charity? So what there using a game in there efforts, I'm pretty sure there well aware its not going stop the slaughter, its more about raising awareness any way they can.

    All use guys sound like "big men" writing slander against a charity who's only goal is to protect defenseless baby animals

    And as far as the guy who mentioned the Penn and tellers bullshit episode! Those morons are fat obnoxious one sided idiots and if you educate yourself by what they have to say then more the fool on you.

  • ruined #12 3 years ago

    I'd almost consider coming back to WoW to go club some seals and protect the reps

  • Rirekon #13 3 years ago

    Wait there are baby seals you can kill in WoW? I got to get playing again

  • sneetch #14 3 years ago

    @Eraysor
    I really hope a ton of Alliance players get together and gank the shit out of them.

    ... and then go on a sponsored seal hunt. Hand in claw with the horde.

    "We realised that, although we hate the Horde, we hate seals more."

  • Fleisch #15 3 years ago

    Surely the irony here is that if anything the alliance is more at fault, what with old man Hemmet being a dwarf and all?

    (Before you lay into me with Horde sucks etc, my main is a Dwarf Pala.....and I've little time for PETA!)

    Back on track, animal rights in games are pointless, its like ol' JT saying ban all violent games 'cause people murder because of them. Its all BS. People won't go out Seal killing in real life because they killed one in a game. Being violent/killing in real life has no resemblance to a game, anyone who's got an iota of common sense could tell you that.
    Edited by 1 at 08/04/09 @ 11:05

  • RedSparrows #16 3 years ago

    It's not so much about the supposed correlation between game and reality, it's just a protest about killing seals.

  • Fleisch #17 3 years ago

    By killing other living beings?

    great plan.

    I just don't buy into PETA's strategy of using games, like that cooking mama rip off, to send their message across.

  • Fleisch #18 3 years ago

    From Joystiq.com

    'Despite years of PETA's crusading, animals are still completely edible and, in many cases, delicious. Perhaps focusing on more manageable goals now, the organization has taken to protesting the murder of seals ... in World of Warcraft. That's right, if you log on to the WhisperWind realm on April 11 at 1 p.m. EST and trek to Howling Fjord, you'll be able to defend digital seals against imaginary slaughter.

    We asked a real, actual seal if he appreciated the sentiment, but his response was drowned out by the sound of him being clubbed to death by a burly Norwegian.'

    genius.

  • pbz #19 3 years ago

    P.E.T.A - People Eating Tasty Animals

    ...Any one else have a rare steak for breakfast? Mmmmmm

  • Retroid #20 3 years ago

    "Canadians portrayed as Undead Horde."

    Brains, eh?

  • Gormless #21 3 years ago

    PETA, go fuck yourself.

  • GreyScale #22 3 years ago

    Is there a more annoying bunch of people than PETA? Seriously, animal rights is all well and good, no one likes to see animals suffer unneccesarily, but they really take it too far with all the anti-meat eating stuff too, its like they don't know where to draw the line.

    I used to have some respect for them but since they have started all these irritating publicity stunts I just don't want to know.

  • dsmx #23 3 years ago

    Little boy I've had many jobs over the years whale hunter, seal clubber, president of the fox network and yes like most people I've dealt a little ivory.

  • zootle #24 3 years ago

    Surely this is just some April fool joke that's spiralled out of control. I cannot believe this is some kind of a serious protest. If anyone is at fault it's Blizzard because those seals are a great, easy and fast source of Chilled Meat!

    I regularly slaughter those seals, not with something as clumsy as a club though. Pull a load and AoE the cute bastards down, that's the way to go. Then it's back to Dalaran to do the cooking daily.

  • Corben_Dallas #25 3 years ago

    PETA can fuck off.

    If it was ok for cavemen the its ok to harvest furs in a VIRTUAL WORLD u muppets.
    Edited by 1 at 08/04/09 @ 14:21

  • MikeP #26 3 years ago

    Having watched the Youtube vid, I am confused as to why the Horde/Canadian Seal Hunters sound like they come from Alabama.

    Has no-one from PETA ever been to Canada?

  • mega7ech #27 3 years ago

    PETA = Tree hugging animal fucking hippies!

  • SpeedyThing #28 3 years ago

    This is the same PETA who last year put 95% of the animals in their care to death. They were far too busy spending their money drumming up publicity than they were actually caring for animals.

  • butler` #29 3 years ago

    Mike P, I'm not sure what you're on abut.