Don’t get me wrong. PokÃ©mon is one of my all time favorite games. My boyfriend and I are counting down the days until we can get our hands on the new Black & White versions. When it comes down to it though, PokÃ©mon doesn’t seem… quite right.

I found an article reviewing the older game, PokÃ©mon Platinum, that demoted the game to nothing better than glorified cockfighting. Is it really that simple? Let’s take a look.

The premise of PokÃ©mon is rather simple. The player captures little monsters (usually rather cute ones) using PokÃ©balls. The player then “trains” these animals to battle against other trainers in order to then defeat the Elite Four, thus essentially defeating the game. As all games, you can continue playing after you defeat the Elite Four, but that is the main goal of the game. How could this possibly be compared to animal cruelty?

Johnny Wander on PokÃ©mon

Ways PokÃ©mon Promote Animal Cruelty

1. Keeping PokÃ©mon in Confined Cages (a.k.a. PokÃ©balls)

This well qualifies as real life animal cruelty. Animals who are kept in cages for extensive periods of time are considered abused. PokÃ©balls seem especially cramped, but we really don’t know what goes on in them.

There was once a “A Pup Named Scooby Doo” episode where the Mystery Team follows Scooby Doo into his dog house. As it turns out, his dog house is really essentially an entire underground mansion/mall. I like to think of PokÃ©balls that way. They may be deceptive on the outside, but maybe they are mansions on the inside.

2. Capturing Wild PokÃ©mon

The RPGamer article referenced earlier likes to refer to this as “poaching.”

PokÃ©mon Platinum puts the player in the blood-soaked shoes of a ten year old boy whose clearly incapable mother allows the youngster to run off on his own to pursue a career of PokÃ©mon poaching.

That being said, parents don’t normally encourage their kids to go capture wild animals to do battles with. Normal wild animals tend to be a little more dangerous than PokÃ©mon. Not to mention that poaching usually occurs when people are killing or capturing endangered species.

Oh, wait…

3. Capturing Wild Rare PokÃ©mon

It is encouraged in the game to capture the rarest PokÃ©mon that you can find. Often, there will only be one of a species available in the game, referred to as a Legendary PokÃ©mon. It is illegal in most countries to personally own an endangered species, much less battle with it.

3. Training PokÃ©mon to Battle Against Other PokÃ©mon

This is where the comparison to cockfighting comes in, and probably the most controversial aspect of PokÃ©mon. Admittedly, this does seem a bit extreme for a kid’s game. Then again, Wizards101 is a kid centered game where the player duels against other players (just not with animals), and shows about the same amount of blood.

As in: none. Neopets, a game that I’m really not sure how to even describe, also has the option to battle player’s pet against other pets.

Let’s stop talking about other games. PokÃ©mon allows the player to orchestrate a battle against another trainer’s pokÃ©mon. There are some rather vicious attacks, including ones that I have no other way to describe than shooting nuclear beams at each other. I can definitely see the comparison between cockfighting and PokÃ©mon, and while we can make the argument that “PokÃ©mon are made for it,” I really can’t see any reason being enough to soften the argument.

PETA’s Response

If you have been living under a rock, PETA is an animal right’s organization that is well known for taking their cause to the extreme. Keeping in mind the previous and the accusations against PokÃ©mon, I contacted PETA to see their stance on the popular children’s game.

PokÃ©mon deserves praise for promoting good care and affection for other living beings–even imaginary ones. However, real animals in the real world shouldn’t be confined to small spaces against their will–whether it’s a Poke Ball or a cage for egg-laying hens. The world of PokÃ©mon is clearly fictional, and we trust that most kids can see this distinction. However, parents may want to ensure that their children understand that while cartoon animals living in imaginary Poke Balls is all in good fun, real animals should always be treated with compassion and respect and should never be condemned to life in a cage. –PETA’s official response when asked their stance on PokÃ©mon.

I had to admit, I was pleasantly surprised by their view. I really couldn’t agree more with them.

How PokÃ©mon Actually Fights Animal Cruelty

Surprisingly, as PETA mentions, the PokÃ©mon game and TV series does promote that love and affection for the little monsters. In each game there is an organization that is attempting to capture PokÃ©mon for evil intentions. The most notable of these organizations is Team Rocket, but there are others as well. In each of the games (and in almost every single episode), the player must thwart the plans of the evil organization to capture these PokÃ©mon and take over the world. A couple of the games (Silver and Soul Silver if I remember correctly), the evil organization actually attempts to sell you a Slowpoke tail.

Poor Slowpoke!

By defeating the organizations in each of the games, the player is actually fighting against PokÃ©mon cruelty.

In the TV series, along with thwarting the plans of each organization, episode 8 of season 1 (“The Path to the PokÃ©mon League“), Ash runs across an unofficial gym where the trainer, A.J., has never lost a single battle out of 98 total. A.J. easily defeats Ash, earning him his 99th win. Ash, angered, ends up taking a peak inside A.J.’s tent where he sees all of his PokÃ©mon going under hardcore and borderline abusive training. Ash attempts to stop A.J. but learns in the end that A.J. really does love his PokÃ©mon, and they really do love him. It’s just simply tough love.

So Does PokÃ©mon Promote Animal Cruelty?

No. When it comes down to it, PokÃ©mon is a game, and should be taken as such. While animal cruelty and cockfighting does exist, it is in no way inspired by PokÃ©mon. When we have kids trying to battle their hamsters and trying to stuff them into PokÃ©balls, then we may have a problem. Oh wait, there’s this. Hey Rachel! Don’t we put hamsters into balls too? Okay. Maybe hamsters aren’t the best comparison, but you get the point.

If anything, PokÃ©mon promotes love and caring towards animals. Ash and the player befriends the PokÃ©mon and care for them. While the battles can understandably be taken as abuse, in reality it is still a game.

It mostly down to parents teaching their children good values, including not abusing animals, and making sure that children understand the difference between video game fantasy and real life.

Parents may also want to walk with their kids every so often too. I mean, the PokÃ©walker was made to walk with, not just to shake. Just saying.