Minecraft syringe

Last weekend, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) launched its own world within the popular videogame, Minecraft. In Minecraft, players can use their imagination to build whatever they’d like within a block-based world. PETA has long operated as if it lives in its own world by its own rules. Now the organization plans to share that world with gamers—or at least a rose-tinted version of it.

In a blog post unveiling the project, PETA claimed that “unlike on other Minecraft servers—no animals, not even digital ones, can be harmed on our dedicated Minecraft server!” According to reports, the virtual vegan world will contain a replica of PETA’s headquarters.

If both are the case, then the virtual headquarters can’t be a true replica. Animals are killed at PETA’s actual office at a rate of 5 per day.

As we have documented before, PETA’s real-world Norfolk, Virginia headquarters has been more like a house of horrors for animals than a block-based paradise. PETA headquarters allegedly sanctioned the murder of roughly 30,000 pets over the last 12 years.

The digital PETA headquarters, then, are a far safer place for animals than the actual PETA headquarters—and perhaps those simply near PETA’s headquarters. The group drew outrage last week when two PETA employees allegedly stole a young girl’s pet Chihuahua from her front porch, put it in the back of their PETA-branded van, and later killed it. Days after contacting PETA, the group gave the girl’s family a fruit basket and informed them that their pet had been killed. PETA must think that a fruit basket makes up for the loss of their beloved pet. And then there’s the infamous North Carolina case.

Pouring donor funds into the creation of a PETA-branded Minecraft server may seem like a strange use of the organization’s resources. In the end though, it’s just nice to see PETA using its energy for something other than killing animals—even if it’s time spent creating a Potemkin Village.