Animal Actors: Recent Tragedy And A Possible Solution
Controversy surrounding a couple new movies has highlighted the plight of animals in the entertainment industry, particularly in film. Video footage came out showing the stars of the movie in Water for Elephants, who are elephants, being hurt and mistreated during training. Also, a number of websites have called for a boycott of the soon-to-be released movie Zookeeper, after Tweet, a giraffe, died shortly after acting in the movie. I live in the Los Angeles area, so the issue of animals in films is present in my mind, but this is likely not something that most people think about. However, animals are used in films every day and their experiences need to be closely monitored and considered by animal advocates.
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Animals in acting is big business; a number of companies exist in the Los Angeles area dedicated to providing animals for hire. Unfortunately, the scope of the business and the plight of the animals is not well known and represents an area where further research and investigation is sorely needed. Only one organization, American Humane Association, oversees animals in acting. However, they have no oversight over, nor do they evaluate, the conditions of animals at the facilities where they are trained and live, prior to being used on the television or movie set.
Since it is difficult to know the scope and degree of abuses animals might face on the sets of movies, the ideal for animal advocates would be to eliminate their use in film entirely. All the same, there is reason to want to see animals in films, as the media might positively influence people’s love for animals and awareness of animal issues. For example, a study examining environmental attitudes of children found that family, school-based programs, and the media had a measurable influence on their attitudes. However, the harm done by using animals as movie stars can often outweigh the benefit; though the movie Water for Elephants received a stamp of approval from the American Humane Association for the on-set work, grave abuses were apparently occurring off-screen.
Luckily, animal advocates can have it both ways—animals can be in entertainment media, educating humans to their value and needs, while at the same time that actual animals are not forced into a life of acting. As this article in the San Francisco Chronicle highlights, there are alternatives to using live animals on the silver screen by superimposing live footage of animals in their natural environment into a movie:
“The [GreenScreen Animals] library contains thousands of raw, drag-and-drop images that can be seamlessly “composited” or “chroma-keyed” into a final film, television, web or print project. This alternative to employing live animals for commercial production benefits both the animals and the TV and film industry. The animals are photographed in a protected, low-stress environment and the industry gains access to dynamic animal content in a safe and affordable way.”
As a researcher examining this topic, the lack of information on animals in film raised some interesting questions for me: What role does entertainment media have in shaping people’s attitudes toward animals? How many animals are used or injured in film and television production each year?
As an animal advocate I am glad to know that there is a viable solution to using live animals as actors and hope that consumers will demand for this technology to be utilized in the movies they choose to see.