PETA calls for boycott of ‘The Witcher’ season 2

In an appeal to “kind audiences,” animal rights group PETA has demanded that viewers skip the latest season of ‘The Witcher’ because of its use of live animals instead of “modern and humane computer-generated imagery.”

Shortly after the premiere of Netflix’s second season of ‘The Witcher,’ People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals released a statement warning the public that the show has “a monster problem in that producers apparently monstrously chose to exploit a live lemur and squirrel monkeys, among other animals, instead of using modern and humane computer-generated imagery.” 

The organization accused the showrunners of exploiting the animals and of prematurely separating them from their mothers. PETA further claimed that the filming process thwarted the animals’ needs to explore and reproduce, concluding that audiences should skip the show entirely and support other films that only use human actors.

PETA followed up with a twitter post, where they provided a montage of all the animals used in the show, once again asking people not to binge the show, which “exploits animals.”

Most fans, however, seem to have completely ignored PETA’s calls as the latest season of ‘The Witcher’ remains in the top 10 most-watched series on Netflix, being closely followed by the first season of the same show.

So far, Netflix has not issued any response to PETA’s concerns; however, this isn’t the first time PETA has tried to spread its message on the coattails of a popular release. It has petitioned Nintendo to include PETAs ‘Not A Nugget’ mascot in a Super Smash Bros game, and staged an in-game protest in Animal Crossing, requesting the game devs remove a core mechanic that allowed players to collect and display fish they caught.

It’s unclear what sort of impact, if any, PETAs calls to action have had thus far, as most of the productions they criticize don’t seem to experience much backlash amid the criticisms. Meanwhile, the most common reaction to PETAs calls and petitions from regular people appears to be indifference.