PETA Reminds StarCraft Players That Zerglings Have Feelings, Too

The following was written
by Joel Bartlett. 

StarCraft players gearing up for the launch of
StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm will be getting a new perspective on the game’s
arthropodal extraterrestrials, the Zerg.

PETA—or, as we are renaming ourselves in honor
of the expansion pack’s launch, “Terrans for the Ethical Treatment of
Zerglings”—will attend tonight’s launch event in Irvine, California, and distribute copies of our
new “Zerglings Have Feelings, Too” leaflets as a reminder that gamers
and nongamers alike should have compassion for all beings—even those who are
very different from us.

Heart for the Swarm

We always root for the underdogs (and undermice
and underpigeons, etc.) at PETA. And when playing StarCraft, I had noticed how
the Zerg were treated more like animals than like other people. I couldn’t help
but wonder if there would be an analog to PETA in the world of StarCraft.
Tonight, my dream will come true.

People often wonder what PETA has against
video games, especially after playing our Pokémon: Black and Blue or Super Tanooki Skin 2D parody
games, which have each gotten millions of people to think about PETA’s issues
and, together, have led to more than 750,000 people watching PETA’s hard-hitting
videos. The truth is that as a gamer and a PETA staffer, I get excited about
combining my passions. 

So remember, while Zerglings are not real,
there are many equally “strange” and exotic animals we share this
planet with who deserve our empathy. Just because crocodiles and snakes look
alien to us, that doesn’t make it OK to skin them alive for a handbag, shoes,
or a belt.

And if we had to share our world with the Zerg
in reality, I’d like to think that we’d make an effort to understand and
respect them rather than sending out the battlecruisers—because the alternative to having empathy for
other beings is about as grim as it gets, whether you’re a Terran, a Zerg, or a
Protoss. OK, whoa, that got kind of serious there. What I am saying is look at
the cute Zergling! How could anyone ever want to hurt a Zergling?

If
all this talk of “Zerg rights” has you thinking, I recommend that you
check out Animal
Liberation, the groundbreaking book by Peter Singer, which is credited
with kick-starting the modern animal rights movement. What does “animal liberation”
even mean? See PETA’s
summary of the book here to find out.