Choice and consequence are major themes in Lionhead Studios’ Fable II, and the ability to choose veggies over meat landed the game a Proggy Award for “most animal friendly videogame” from animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

“Fable II is a vegetarian's dream come true,” states PETA’s Proggy website. “Featuring a strong pro-vegetarian theme, eating a plant-based diet helps you rack up ‘purity’ points, whereas eating meat makes your character fat and evil.”

But those who’ve played Fable II know that there are instances of virtual animal cruelty that only the most demented person would partake in, such as eating live baby chicks or gaining Achievements for shooting bunnies and kicking chickens long distances.

PETA rep Dan Shannon, who told Edge in a phone interview that he’s nearing the end of Fable II, addressed the RPG series’ celebration of wanton chicken kicking.

"I'll be honest, it's not our favorite part of the game,” he admitted. “But what we like about Fable II and why we gave it the award is because the game presents you with choices, and then you see the repercussions of what those choices are. This is what the awards are based on, and that’s what PETA’s philosophy is—for people to understand how their choices affect the real world.”

He continued, “It’s not like people eat meat to score evil points, but you are supporting an industry that is cruel to animals. People need to be aware that their choices affect the world. We like that message in Fable II.”

Just prior to the Thanksgiving holiday, PETA stood up for a close friend of the chicken, the turkey, stating, "...There's nothing funny about the suffering endured by turkeys and other animals who are killed for food."

PETA also derided the Majesco casual game Cooking Mama for its use of meat-based recipes with the parody game Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals.

Shannon added, “[The Chicken-Kicking] is done in a light-hearted manner. I don’t think anyone’s going to go out and start kicking chickens in their yard because of this game. Just like real life, you can go kick chickens if you want to, but we don’t think most people get off on that.”