Featured Image Credit: PBS/PETA
Topics: World News
Animal rights group PETA has spoken out against Kyle Rittenhouse's controversial new video game, in which a cartoon version of the teenager shoots "fake news turkeys".
Rittenhouse was charged with the fatal shooting of two men back in August 2020. He was 17 at the time. The teenager insists he had travelled to Wisconsin from Illinois to provide medical aid and protection during the civil unrest that began in Kenosha as a result of the shooting of Jacob Blake by police. While there, he fired on protestors in the name of self defence.
He was ultimately acquitted in November 2021, and has gone on to become a bit of a figurehead among those on the right who believe he was simply defending himself and exercising his right to bear arms. The left has widely condemned the verdict of the trial and the fact that Rittenhouse is a free man, citing it as another example of the systemic racism inherent in America.
Earlier this year an incredibly controversial game called Acquitted was released that poked fun at the events Kenosha and wholly supported Rittenhouse, although the teenager had no direct connection to the game or developers. Now, however, Rittenhouse has announced his own game called Kyle Rittenhouse's Turkey Shoot.
The game looks about as awful as you'd expect it to, clearly going for tactless shock value over anything else. Proceeds from the game, which doesn't yet have a release date, will go towards Rittenhouse's legal fees and media defamation lawsuits.
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Naturally, the announcement of the game provoked outrage among many on the left who feel that maybe Rittenhouse shouldn't be a colourful video game mascot. It also wasn't long before PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) called the game out.
PETA President Ingrid Newkirk said in a statement: "Kyle Rittenhouse is right that fake news is a scourge that often results in real-life harm and death, but in these times especially, we need to protect and respect all—not promote more violence through a video game advocating shooting turkeys, who bother no one and are thinking, feeling birds who look after their brood and, when not factory farmed, have full and interesting lives that they value."
"We’re sending Rittenhouse a box of Tofurky roasts along with a request that he find an inanimate object to shoot if he’s determined to shoot at all."