"Animals WERE harmed"

[DrLeftover]

...


The full scope of animal injuries and deaths in entertainment productions cannot be known. But in multiple cases examined by THR, the AHA has not lived up to its professed role as stalwart defenders of animals — who, unlike their human counterparts, didn’t themselves sign up for such work. While the four horse deaths on HBO’s Luck made headlines last year, there are many extraordinary incidents that never bubble up to make news.

A Husky dog was punched repeatedly in its diaphragm on Disney’s 2006 Antarctic sledding movie Eight Below, starring Paul Walker, and a chipmunk was fatally squashed in Paramount’s 2006 Matthew McConaughey-Sarah Jessica Parker romantic comedy Failure to Launch. In 2003, the AHA chose not to publicly speak of the dozens of dead fish and squid that washed up on shore over four days during the filming of Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Crewmembers had taken no precautions to protect marine life when they set off special-effects explosions in the ocean, according to the AHA rep on set.

And the list goes on: An elderly giraffe died on Sony’s 2011 Zookeeper...

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/feature/

 

[DrLeftover]

Maybe I should have put a warning on that article that it might upset people that both like movies and love animals.

But they are precisely the ones who need to read it.

 

[Evil Eye]

So movies are not required to have one of these AHA people on set?

 

[DrLeftover]

American studios and producers are absolutely required to have one. As are production companies in the UK and in some other countries.

Now, whether or not said Animal Welfare Officer is literally In Bed with the producer, like in the case cited in the article, is another matter all together.

 

[Evil Eye]

Obviously.
That's a real shame. They should get their act together...

 

[DrLeftover]

Obviously.
That's a real shame. They should get their act together...

.... like Congress.