Vegetarian Star

Farmville

Farmville, a Zynga game offered as a Facebook and iphone app which simulates different aspects of farming, does not depict a true image of most farms, with its smiling animals roaming freely around green, idyllic pasture settings. But the game is getting into the greener side of things, offering users a chance to grow organic produce.

Farmville has partnered with Cascadian Farm organic food brand to teach users about organic farming, raise awareness in support of organic farmers and offer coupons for products.

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Mafia Wars

After receiving a request from PETA to remove a chained pit bull used as a weapon from the latest edition of Mafia Wars, Zynga president and CEO has complied with the request.

Mark Pincus will be getting his vegan chocolates from the animal rights organization very soon.

“Mafia Wars is obviously only a game, but the suffering endured by thousands of pit bulls who are treated as if they were nothing more than burglar alarms or fighting machines is very real,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman in a press release. “By removing Mafia Wars’ virtual pit bull, Zynga is no longer perpetuating the mindset that it’s acceptable to chain, neglect, and abuse real dogs.”

We just knew it was impossible for a guy who used to bring his bulldog to work to keep this horrible feature in the game.

And the employee who’s idea it was to put it in there?

No free massages at work for him for a month.

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Zynga

Work place perks are what really keep employees punching the clock everyday.

Maybe that’s why Zynga has a voluntary attrition rate of less than 1%.

As part of the package, the online gaming company allows its employees to bring their dogs to work and gives free vegan cookies and coconut water as snacks.

There’s also free reflexology services and haircuts.

Zynga is named after Chief Executive Mark Pincus’ American bulldog who died in 2008 that would curl up by his feet at the office.

With a company so animal friendly, makes you wonder why dog fighting was ever included in the latest edition of Mafia Wars.

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Mafia Wars

PETA has declared war on Mafia Wars for allowing players to use dogs and other animals to fight.

The animal rights group wrote a letter to Mark Pincus, founder and CEO of Zynga Game Network, asking him to remove this feature from the Mafia War’s Facebook game.

“”Bully breeds” like your beloved late American bulldog, Zinga, are also the breeds of choice for dogfighters and thugs who want a “macho” animal to intimidate others, guard their property, or make them money by winning fights. Every day, PETA staffers meet dogs who have been trapped for years at the end of heavy tractor-trailer chains with nothing but bare patches of dirt and plastic barrels for shelter. These dogs are usually full of heartworms, emaciated, and scarred all over. They are often physically abused and starved, sometimes to death, for losing in illegal dogfights or for being “bad guards” or “not mean enough.” The people who acquire them do so because they have been taught that having one of these dogs is “cool” and “tough,” but they have no idea about the care and feelings of the animal they have enslaved.”

“Will you please reconsider perpetuating the image of pit bulls and other animals as fighting machines in Mafia Wars and decide against sending a dangerous message that it’s somehow acceptable to force animals to fight, keep them chained, and deny them everything that is natural and important to them?”

The entire letter from PETA to Pincus can be found here.

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