*on set
*while cameras were rolling
*while being monitored by American Humane Association monitors.
*that we care to discuss.
The Hollywood Reporter posted a story on November 25th that details the misinformation behind the credit tag "No Animals Were Harmed." This is a tag that is issued by the AHA after monitoring movie sets that involve animals. We're lead to believe that if the credit is there at the end of a movie, it means what it says. That no animals were harmed.
Not necessarily true, reports THR.
The report starts with an email from AHA monitor Gina Johnson to a colleague, where she admits she "downplayed the fuck out of" an incident involving the tiger used in Life of Pi, wherein he nearly drowned.
As a representative of the American Humane Association — the grantor of the familiar “No Animals Were Harmed” trademark accreditation seen at the end of film and TV credits — it was Johnson’s job to monitor the welfare of the animals used in the production filmed in Taiwan. What’s more, Johnson had a secret: She was intimately involved with a high-ranking production exec on Pi. (AHA’s management subsequently became aware of both the relationship and her email about the tiger incident, which others involved with the production have described in far less dire terms.) Still, Pi, which went on to earn four Oscars and $609 million in global box office, was awarded the “No Animals Were Harmed” credit.
This incident alone may seem minor-a scene involving an animal went badly,the trainer managed to pull him out of the tank he was drowning it, and the tiger lived.
And it that was the end of the AHA's corruption, the story would most likely end there.
Alas, it is not the only time the AHA has ignored or, worse, covered up incidents that actually did harm or even kill animals.
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 set and dogs suffering from bloat and cancer died during the production of New Regency’s Marmaduke and The Weinstein Co.’s Our Idiot Brother, respectively (an AHA spokesman confirms the dogs had bloat and says the cancer “was not work-related”). In March, a 5-foot-long shark died after being placed in a small inflatable pool during a Kmart commercial shoot in Van Nuys.
All of these productions had AHA monitors on set.
(Click the link on the original story for
PDF links to reports relating to the above incidents.)
Gina Johnson has since "departed AHA, although there is no word from Johnson or her previous employer explaining why. And AHA issuing non-denial denials about the report:
Under the new senior administration of American Humane Association, a comprehensive program review of the No Animals Were Harmed® program was conducted in 2011 and 2012. These actions are bringing about game-changing innovations and enhancements that are being implemented to further increase the rigor of the safety standards while improving the quality of oversight for enhanced protections for animals working in entertainment. This new administration has made broad, sweeping changes for enhanced protections for animals working in film and entertainment. These changes were necessary, mission-driven, and will continue to build a better and safer future for the animals we love. The improvements include:
1) The creation of a Scientific Advisory Committee, composed of global experts in animal welfare, who are right now reviewing our comprehensive and science-based "Guidelines for the Safe Use of Animals in Filmed Media" – the bible of the industry – to make sure we are doing everything possible to protect animal actors and include the newest findings and research on animal welfare
2) We have brought on Dr. Kwane Stewart, a respected veterinarian, to head the program and bring a new level of rigor and science to our mission and passion to protect the animals in our care
3) As part of our efforts to further improve safety, we recently posted positions to hire licensed veterinarians to serve as our Certified Safety Representatives, and place them in geographic areas across the country where high volumes of filmmaking occurs, including Texas, New Mexico, New York, and Louisiana. We are top-tiering our staff to bring an even higher level of expertise to our important work, and basing our safety reps closer to sets, which will help keep down travel and housing costs for the charity
4) Earlier this year, we implemented a policy that if any animal is seriously injured or dies on set to commission an independent, third-party investigation to find out what happened so that we may prevent as much as is possible such incidents in the future
American Humane Association has made tough changes to ensure that the No Animals Were Harmed® program is structured to meet the humane charter with which we have been entrusted. It's all about the animal actors and ensuring their safety. Abuse in film and entertainment is not pervasive, as the salacious headlines imply; rather our experience is that most everyone we work with in production settings want to do right by the animals, as do we.
It also mentions that it
only monitors animals while they are
on set. What happens in transit or off-set is out of their hands, a position I personally find preposterous.
Oh, and the new senior management? The key player in that would be Dr. S. Kwane Stewart, the man who said of the tiger incident on Pi, “Was it a close call? What is indisputable was that no harm came to King. Could you argue he had a moment? But he continued to work.”