PETA Wants Warhammer 40k Models to be Fur Free

Published: January 31, 2017 5:27 PM /

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Warhammer 40k Space Wolves PETA Header

PETA UK has revealed that they have sent Games Workshop CEO Kevin Rountree a letter asking that they ban anything that looks like fur from all Warhammer characters.

On their website, they put a post up explaining their position, which seems to largely be focused on the more popular Warhammer 40k line, with one bit even directly referencing the year 40,000. Nowhere in the piece is there any mention of Warhammer Fantasy or the other lines, and early on they compare surviving in that universe to the reality of animals who are caught in the fur trade.

To ensure no one thinks that we are publishing any hyperbole in their statement, we are publishing it here in whole for you to judge for yourselves:

The grimdark, battle-hardened warriors are known for their martial prowess – but wearing the skins of dead animals doesn’t take any skill.

Indeed, nothing on the bloody battlefields of Warhammer’s conflict-ravaged universe could match the terrible reality that foxes, minks, rabbits, and other living beings experience at the hands of the fur trade. Those killed for their fur typically first endure a bleak life inside a tiny, filthy wire cage before being electrocuted, drowned, or even skinned alive. Or they may be in the wild, minding their own business, when they get caught in a horrific bone-crushing steel-jaw trap – often languishing for days before eventually dying from starvation, dehydration, or blood loss.

PETA has written to Games Workshop CEO Kevin Rountree asking that the leading British miniature war-gaming brand ban “fur” garments from all Warhammer characters. 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.

 

We have reached out to Games Workshop for comment and will update this if we receive a response.


Quick Take

PETA has a history of some really bizarre and weird activities, but even for them this is strange and over the top. This is, as one might expect, totally nonsensical and essentially insane. We're talking about fictional characters, in a fictional universe, with fake fur that you're guessing is fur, because it's made of another material on the damn model. It's not like any of the models have literal fur on them. 

On another note, if we assume for some reason that these are real beings in some way there, it is FAR WORSE in Warhammer-verse. I mean, those animals are non-sapient beings, and there aren't any sort of eldritch abominations attempting to warp their minds and control them or destroy the whole universe around them. Not only that, they might be left on the battlefield for days bleeding out, dying from severe injuries and no one cares because they are busy with other things or can't find them on the battlefield with thousands and more dead.

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Don Parsons
| Senior Writer

A longtime lover of speculative fiction, in almost all its forms, Don joined TechRaptor in 2014 on a whim sending in an application as he was looking for… More about Don