Month: March 2005

Headlined “New Hasbro toy teaches animal cruelty”, someone posted this to AR-News on February 21,

New toy out that teaches kids how to hit animals: it’s called Whac-A-Mole.

One thing you can do is to add your comments to Amazon.com’s customer review
section:

So far, only one activist seems to have taken up the challenge of submitting a negative review, though I’m not quite sure this is what the AR-News poster had in mind (emphasis added),

This toy is not something I want my children playing with. First off, the toy is something that encourages mindless repetition, which does nothing to stimulate a childs imagination and gives the false impression that it’s alright to beat animals over the head with a mallot, or similar object.

Even the editorial review of this toy states, “The inherent cruelty of this game is tempered considerably by how much fun the moles appear to be having while receiving repeated blows to the head with big plastic mallets.” I agree, beating an animal over the head, even if the animal is plastic, is an inevitable portrayal of cruelty, but I wholeheartedly disagree with the rest of the statement. The cruelty of this game is not tempered considerably by how much fun the moles appear to be having while receiving repeated blows to the head with big plastic mallets. Making children think animals enjoy being beaten on the head is not something parents should encourage. How many times has a child jumped out a second story window, trying to fly, after watching a superman movie, or think a person can be run over by a car, blown up, chopped up, etc. then get up and walk away unharmed because they saw it in cartoons? Maybe some children won’t be affected by this toy, in this way, but some may carry it further and hit another child on the head with something harder than a plastic mallet. What if the child hit on the head, were your child? Anyway you look at it, this toy encourages violence on a living being and with all the violence in the world today, parents need to teach children to respect all life.

Teach kids respect for all life, especially the plastic kind.

Anyway, following this reviewer’s advice, I’m probably going to get my kids the Whack-A-Mole but definitely keep them away from the Superman cartoon.

With Huntingdon Life Science’s sales and stock price on the rise, animal rights activist had appeared to stop making predictions of its imminent demise. Not to fear, though, as Greg Avery has once again said that Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty has HLS on the verge of insolvency.

In a Washington Post story on SHAC and HLS reporter Glenn Frankel writes,

Brian Cass, Huntingdon’s managing director, said his company has survived the onslaught and is back on its feet. But Avery, who insists that he and his supporters operation within the law, contends that the campaign is well on its way toward driving Huntingdon out of business within the next two years.

I guess we’ll have to check back in on January 1, 2007, but I suspect by then the date of the apocalypse will have again been conveniently moved back.

The whole bit of acting within the law is also a sham, as Frankel notes that,

In the early days of the campaign, Avery was arrested and jailed for threatening the life of a Huntingdon official.

Avery also served several months in jail in 2001 for his role in coordinating a campaign of harassment against HLS employees. He has been convicted a total of four times related to his actions against HLS according to the Post.

Source:

Animal rights group aims at enemy’s allies. Glenn Frankel, Washington Post, January 31, 2005.