I like how some of the media (okay, at least Yahoo News) is this as an attention-getter by implying LOLNOES A MARIO GAME IS CONTROVERSHUL. Well, shut up--PETA sucks, and they do this all the time. What a bunch of five-year-olds. Animal cruelty is bad, but we've got to eat something--and Mario's not going to be able to fly and save the princess without a *****in' tanuki tail. Neither goombas nor tanukis even actually exist, so they might as well be complaining about reindeer abuse in time for the holidays.
My apologies if this seems blunt. I've been pretty swamped lately, so my posts (which I really shouldn't be making in the first place, I suppose, but I'm mildly addicted to this place) might be a bit more, uh... off the cuff here and there.