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.