‘The Hobbit’: Unexpected Cruelty
When The Hobbit is released in December, audiences will see an adventure story set in a fantasy world. For the animals involved in the filming, however, the abuse and neglect that they experienced were far too real. In all, five horses, 12 chickens, a pony and several goats and sheep were allegedly maimed or killed.
The Hobbit PETA
A horse named Shanghai was hobbled (his legs were tied together so that he couldn’t move) and left on the ground for three hours because he was too energetic for his rider. Afterward, in order to hide his rope burns for filming, his legs were covered with make-up and hair. Hobbling is an outright violation of guidelines from the American Humane Association (AHA), which was monitoring the production.
More alleged abuse took place where the animals were housed. One horse was killed and another horse was injured after being placed with two high-strung geldings, despite concerns that the geldings would be too aggressive. Another horse was killed after falling off an embankment in a severely crowded paddock. When the horses were moved to the stables, another horse died, probably from colic, an extremely painful illness, after being fed large amounts of food that he wasn’t used to. When the horses were moved back to the paddocks after this incident, another horse had the skin and muscles of her leg torn away by wire fencing. Several goats and sheep died from worm infestations and from falling into the sinkholes that covered the farm, and 12 chickens were mauled and killed by unsupervised dogs or trampled by other animals when left unprotected.
How can something like this happen when the unit production manager was warned and the production was monitored by the AHA? Furthermore, this movie was directed by Peter Jackson, a master of computer-generated imagery (CGI). In a movie that features CGI dragons, ogres, and hobbits, CGI animals would have fit in perfectly. Jackson could have made The Hobbit without using a single animal—and he should have.
Send a message to filmmakers that hurting and killing animals for a film is unacceptable and refuse to see movies that do. Urge Peter Jackson to hold himself and his crew responsible when it comes to animal safety on film sets. Send him a message now!
c: I DON’T AGREE WITH NOT USING ANIMALS, IT COULD BE GOOD FUN. BUT THIS….
WE ARE USED TOO, WE ARE A WORLD.
BUT THIS IS WHY USE IS ALL WHAT IS DETESTABLE ABOUT THE CONVERGENT NOTION OF WORK.
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