Animal Rights Group PETA Criticizes LEGO for Using Farmyard Scenes, Claims Toy Mislead Children

Animal rights activists criticized Lego for using farmyard scenes, claiming that it misled children about the "blood-soaked" reality of farming.

The campaign animal-rights group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), wrote the toy firm and called for the rebranding of its "toy farm" to animal sanctuaries so that children will not be misled about the "horror and cruelty" of farmed food, Perth Now reported.

Letter to LEGO

Mimi Bekhechi from PETA wrote Niels Christiansen, chief executive of the Lego Group, stating that animal farming is a "bloody, cruel business." The toy company should not promote the practice, especially for children. The group cited that the "pastoral scenes" mask the truth about chickens kept in cages, pigs housed in cramped pens, and cows sent to the abattoir.

PETA's letter comes after Guardian journalist and environmental campaigner George Monbiot attacked the "cozy story" told to children about farms and animals. The journalist's Twitter post on May 23 claimed that young children are constantly exposed to "benign visions" of livestock farms that do not provide the story about how animals end as food.

Earlier, Monbiot also shared on Twitter that around 95 percent of Americans eat meat, but 47 percent favor closing slaughterhouses, a swipe at how people may not understand where meat products originate.

As per Nixolympia News, Lego has declined to respond to PETA's letter.

The National Beef Association, in response, defended the importance of teaching youngsters the sources of their food.

Neil Shand, the National Beef Association chief executive, said that the PETA message is misleading, adding that "we have a responsibility to teach children where the food comes from" through farm toys.

Emeritus professor of the University of Kent Frank Fured is concerned that the letter takes something natural and innocent, like children's interest in farm animals, and turns it into something malevolent.

Greatest Toddler Toy Award

According to Daily Mail, Lego released Lego Duplo Farm Adventures with 104 pieces and was recognized with the Greatest Toddler Award in the U.K. in 2018.

The set includes a farmer, two children, a sheep, a cow, a goat, a rooster, and a rabbit. It also has a farmhouse with a barn, tractor, picnic bench, and a slide. The set also has a working pulley on the side of the barn, and toy reviewers noted it as a proper toddler magnet. The toy is not gender-specific, so it appeals to all children, a mom of a two-year-old said.

A recent version, Lego Barn and Farm Animal 60346, will be released in June 2022. Animals in the current set include a cow, her calf, a wooly sheep, a lamb, a pig, two piglets, and a squirrel.