The German arm of the group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has today criticized Far Cry 5 for including fishing in the title, despite the more graphic violence the game allows. The game itself, of course, allows for a great amount of player freedom, and in some cases encourages the player to kill a variety of the game's wildlife.

In the statement, which goes on to explain how fish are more intelligent than apes in some tests, PETA openly appeals to Ubisoft GmbH to commit to removing the feature in the future. Interestingly there is no comment on the player's ability to shoot a variety of wild animals in different environments, something which has been historically prevalent in the Far Cry series. Ubisoft's German division, which is based in Dusseldorf, is yet to respond to the statement which opens as follows:

While in the previous game fish were killed with explosives, the player in Far Cry 5 can catch different kinds of fish with the fishing rod and gets different points of view depending on the type of fish. PETA now appeals to the German representation of the game developer, the Ubisoft GmbH in Dusseldorf, in the future no longer to market video games in Germany, glorifying and banalizing the hunting and killing of fish or other animals. The animal rights organization proposes instead to develop games with free-living animals that do not glorify killing as a pastime.

Fans of the series have been quick to criticize the statement, citing unwarranted political correctness as well as hypocrisy based on damning reports into the number of animal deaths that PETA is personally responsible for. This is not the first time PETA has taken aim at video games with accusations of animal cruelty; in fact, the group has a long and storied history of doing so. In the past huge title including Assassins Creed 4: Black Flag, Call of Duty: World at War, and even Mario have fallen victim to the accusations.

It is currently unclear whether Ubisoft will take PETA's concerns into consideration although if past responses from game developers are anything to go by it may be some time before the animal rights group gets any kind of recognition.