Animal rights activists are outraged over Kraft Foods’ new line of gummi roadkill candies, like the gummi roadkill snake on the left.
Sigh.
. . . You fill in the story from here.
No, wait. . . .
Excerpts:
"It sends the wrong message to children, that it’s OK to harm animals. And that’s the wrong message, especially from a so-called wholesome corporation like Kraft," said [New Jersey SPCA] spokesman Matthew Stanton. "I mean, the eight year-old little boys that would be interersted in such gummis will be so psychologically twisted by them that they will steal their daddies’ cars and go out joyriding just to be able to squash animals flat!"
(Cowboy hat tip to the reader who sent it.)
I’m making it my mission to find & buy some tonight!
Here’s the thing. Kids like creepy, gross stuff. Remember the Cabbage Pail Kids? Yeah, same thing here. Besides, what could be more fun that eating a gummy snake with tire tracks in it? I ask you!
So, lemme see if I get this right. Kids who eat these candies will be more likely to steal cars & run over stray animals but kids who listen cop-killer rap music or watch extremely violent & sexual TV shows & movies won’t act that behavior out? Who makes these things up?
Okay. If I ever see these, I’m buying ’em.
Actually I’m inclined to believe that they are tasteless and should not be consumed by children *because* children are affected by outside stimuli. Of course, that means, as a poster mentioned above, that care should be taken with TV and movies and that violent and or sexual suggestive content should be limited.
Now Gene you are funny! Actually Gummi bears are the dentists best friend.
Caveat emptor!
Hi Jimmy!
I think that Nick makes a good point. There’s simply some things that we wouldn’t want children exposed to. I don’t think anyone on this board would think twice about gummy candy that was pornographic. So, where do you draw the line and why do you draw it there?
I guess the best answer boils down to a parent’s judgement of his or her own child’s temperament. Blanket prohibitions are needlessly authoritarian.
My 9 year old son is so going to love these…oh, where did I go wrong (where do I begin!)
God Bless.
Actually, they’re kinda cute. I don’t think my kids would even figure out that those are tire tracks on that snake unless I made a big deal about it.
In outback Australia ther is an industry around road-kill kangaroos where they collect the carcases each day (I guess in the early morning before the sun gets up and starts rotting the flesh) and turn them into pet food.
Maybe there’s a co-relation here? (Grinning winking smiley)
The Roadkill Cafe: You Kill ‘Em, We Grill ‘Em
Kraft Foods gives in to the wackos and kills their Roadkill Candy.
Wait….Wait….Wait……..So eating gummy road kill is wrong. But they haven’t protested eating “regular” gummy live animals. Is eating the live animals OK then?
But they haven’t protested eating “regular” gummy live animals. Is eating the live animals OK then?
Give them time: they have to work their way up to it.
‘Zacly, Marc! And what about Sour Patch Kids, huh?!? Now, THAT is shocking; teaching kids to be cannibals through tasty gummy treats! Not in MY house, mister.
While I admit I’m tripping quickly into the absurd, there is a clear difference between a food shaped like an animal and a food shaped like an animal hit by a car that has (supposedly) been mangled purposelessly. We all (I hope) hold that killing an animal for food should be done as humanely as possible. We should also hold that God is the originator of life and that taking any life, including that of an animal, is serious stuff. We should also hold that all meaningless and especially painful loss of life should cause sorrow. This doesn’t make hunting evil. It certainly doesn’t make eating a steak evil (like I’m about to run off and do). It *does* make chuckling about a wasted life via an accident, where the victim may be mangled and loose said life slowly, evil.
Its easy for those of us with a conservative bent to throw up our hands at the absurdity of the opposition. We shouldn’t though cross the line ourselves and assume that symbols don’t have an affect.
Nick, I personally am not a fan of those “Road-Kill Cafe” T-shirts you see occasionally, especially in rural areas, like where I grew up in Cali, for many of the same reasons you point out. I am making fun here, not of the poor animals who, as victims of road-kill, suffer horrible deaths, but of the PETA folks who are going to extremes. If they truely believe that the behavior of eating these candies (in 5 bright, chewey flavors! – sorry, I just can’t stop myself) will cause Sally or Petey to swipe Daddy’s car & aim it for the nearest zoo, then they’ve gone all rummy. Above, I pointed out that there are worse examples of so-called entertainment that kids have access to that have far more detrimental & long-reaching effects. The porn industry wants us all to believe that their product does not cause the objectifying of women or tear apart families. Rap performers, like Eminem, would have us know that they’re actually satirists – who, in Em’s case, just happens to write about killing his wife & stuffing her into the trunk of his car or calls his mother all sorts of names I wouldn’t even dare to think in my Mom’s presence. I could go on. But PETA chooses, as is their wont, their raison d’être, to go after a candy. I find this ludicrous in light of other, & IMO, far more egregious examples. Yes, I am in total agreement with you that symbols can have an effect on folks, especially kids. But aren’t there bigger fish to fry than a blue gummy tire-marked chicken that tastes like raspberries?
And how many of us on Easter bite off the ears of the chocolate bunny!
Wait a minute. Are we NOT supposed to eat road kill?
My intent in sending this in was to highlight the absurdly over-the-top reaction from the left, which holds that it is o.k. to kill people (the unborn, Terri Schiavo), but that we must not joke about killing animals.
While I wouldn’t buy these for my young children, I wouldn’t object to older kids or pre-teens buying them, and they are the ones most likely to. It’s just quirky enough to be interesting, and down here in Arkansas, road kill is a fact of life. I’m sorry, but we just don’t go all emotionally mushy inside for the dead skunk on the side of the road.
There is a little vignette in the movie “Napoleon Dynamite” that helps to illustrate life in the rural U.S.: A rancher who is preparing to shoot one of his cows chooses (unintentionally) to do the deed exactly when a busload of young school kids passes by. They all scream. In the movie it is hilarious. Why? I dunno… maybe because life is just like that sometimes.
Traditionally, children’s culture has always included a few reminders of the harsher facts of life. Yes, they are softened by being part of a fairy tale or a joke, but they are there. They need to be there, to soften the transition from childhood to adulthood.
And kids love gross things. They will make up much grosser things for themselves than roadkill gummis.
This is yet another example of where common sense fails a lot of people. No…I’m not talking about Kraft for making and marketing these things. I am talking about activist folks that just can’t seem to realize that most people deal with tragedy by humor.
I love animals as much as anyone. I absolutely abhor the idea of animals suffering or dying needlessly. I do however see the humor in this product and guess what…if I let my kid eat them I bet she never goes out of her way to harm an animal. Why? BECAUSE SHE KNOWS THE DIFFERENCE!!!
We have become a society where political correctness is strangling us! GET A LIFE FOLKS!
I have to laugh….anyone remember the “Road Kill Beanie Babies”? What about the candies that supposedly taste like…oh, farts and boogers and dirt? Kids love gross stuff, and a few adults, too………