A devastating investigative piece from the Hollywood Reporter, on the rampant abuse of animals in Hollywood productions. Generally focused on the “fluff” surrounding the Hollywood elite, the Reporter has produced a scathing indictment on how animals have been, and continue to be, treated as just so many props to bring life to their fantasies; except in this case, actors cried – animals died.

Chimpanzees Cody (left) and Sable kiss Yost at his former training facility in California’s San Bernardino County. He now operates out of Louisiana.

Excerpts:
“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. A year later, during the filming of another blockbuster, Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, 27 animals reportedly perished, including sheep and goats that died from dehydration and exhaustion or from drowning in water-filled gullies, during a hiatus in filming at an unmonitored New Zealand farm where they were being housed and trained. A trainer, John Smythe, tells THR that AHA’s management, which assigned a representative to the production, resisted investigating when he brought the issue to its attention in August 2012.” Read much more on Hollywood’s rampant abuse of animals …