American Humane Association Accused Of Covering Up Animal Abuse In Hollywood
The American Humane Association (AHA) has been accused of covering up animal abuse occuring during filming of movies and TV shows.
In an exclusive article by The Hollywood Reporter, some employees of the group reveals some of the most horrible incidents of abuse and death among animals being employed in movies and TV shows.
One notable incident was that of Ang Lee's Life of Pi, where a tiger nearly drowned during filming the movie. The movie used CGI technology to create the tiger in many scenes, but King the Tiger has to be used in some scenes where digital imagery would not suffice.
Gina Johnson, the AHA monitor assigned for the movie, confided to a colleague via email what happened on set of Pi, and revealed that he got lost trying to swim to the side.
'I think this goes without saying but DON'T MENTION IT TO ANYONE, ESPECIALLY THE OFFICE!' Johnson said in the email trail. 'I have downplayed the f- out of it.'
Despite such incident, Life of Pi was awarded 'No Animals Were Harmed' credit by the association.
Last year, the HBO series Luck made headlines when three of the horses died on set.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), an animal rights group, called for the shutdown of the series which was then in its current season, which HBO complied while denying allegations of animal abuse. Furthermore, a former employee of AHA said four horses, not three, died during production of the series, and that the horses used were drugged, underweight and sick.
The THR article also revealed the 136-year-old non-profit organization has been failing in its duty to improve the care and safety of animals being employed in movies and TV shows. The same pieces of evidence alleged that "the organization distorts its film ratings, downplays or fails to publicly acknowledge harmful incidents and sometimes doesn't seriously pursue investigations."
Finally, the employees whom THR has spoken with has noticed changes in their organization that aims to get the support of the film industry, but at the expense of its duty when it first started overseeing film and TV production which uses animals.
"The moral compass of the entire place is off the hook," one AHA employee said.
"We've been hopeful for change, but not this. It's not changing. It's getting worse," another employee noted.
PETA became concerned with this deliberate ignorance by the AHA.
"As long as we have an organization that's intimidated by powerful filmmakers, the animals are always going to lose," Kathy Guillermo, senior vice president, said.