The Hobbit question -- Hugh?
 

Sorry if this is old news, but I just heard that 27 animals were killed during the filming of The Hobbit.... including two horses. :(

That is a felony, right? Were those responsible ever punished?

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Thank you for the link, Aaron.

Apparently nobody was punished, and there were no fines. I guess it's not even a crime. I'm surprised that this is still allowed in this day and age. The almighty dollar trumps everything.

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I'd heard of it, and I'm surprised that the American Humane Association wasn't more involved off -set where the animals were housed. On our shows they are heavily involved.

Yeah, sounds like the boarding facilities were to blame. Here in Hollywood, they are very tough and thorough on monitoring. When 3 horses died at Santa Anita racetrack during the filming of HBO's "Luck", they cancelled the series.

'Luck' Canceled: HBO Cancels Drama Amid Horse Deaths And Low Ratings

What jurisdiction does AHA have on New Zealand soil? :confused:

It sounds like they dealt with those issues before the first movie was released.

Doesn't make it any better, but that article is from 2012.

None.

But if a movie wants an AHA statement "That no animals were harmed during the filming of this movie" there has to be AHA oversight. Believe it or not, I'm pretty sure that there is contractual language in the Screen Actor's Guild agreement with the Producers. (Animal actors you know).

Thank you Hugh, and all y'all. :cool:

The cynic in me says that if this show had had winning ratings a solution to the outcry over the deaths of three horses would have been reached. Ka-ching. I hope I'm wrong.

It was found to a a "Not True".

A company that contracted animals for the film (films) was investigated, and yes we have lots of animal protection laws here, and it was found to be not true.

Anyone as high profile as Peter Jackson has a number of haters. He has won most of his battles including a big one with the Autralian actors union who tried to take over here. This was just one more attempt to discredit him and the excellent work he does.

That is good to hear.

I am not a big fan of the Hobbit films so I don't care about the movies but it is nice to hear the the animals did not die.

We are big on animal welfare around this place. Strong laws and active SPCA.

I don't know why so many people are so against Peter Jackson. He has done a lot for putting Nez Zealand on the map and has brought a lot of big spending tourists here who go to the various filming locations and premiers.

I'm a big fan of him as his film people are well paid and like to spend. So here in Wellingtons east where his various stuidos are, we have more cafes resturants and bars that have sort of grown with the industry.

The show had been doing "OK" and was building a following. David Milch (NYPD Blue, Deadwood) and Michael Mann (Miami Vice, Heat) are both heavy hitters. Showtime, HBO, etc. are different from network TV, whereas they will give a show a few seasons to build an audience. I think they just wanted to avoid controversy, and I think Dennis Farina's health didn't help much.

It seems the original news report of the 27 deaths came from PETA (not the People Eating Tasty Animals one). So you can be assured that they would never blow something out of proportion to get a few inches of news print. (green colour font)

I've been a big LOTR fan since I first read the Fellowship in 5th grade. Actually read all of LOTR before I read the Hobbit plus many, many other Tolkien works.

Having said that, while my wife will be quick to point out the fact that I can't help but point out the movies' "inconsistencies" that doesn't mean that I didn't thoroughly enjoy the Trilogy.

The Hobbit on the other hand has disappointed me more than I would have thought. When I first heard it was going to be a Trilogy, I thought two movies at most...which made me nervous..

The story line differences in the Hobbit leave me a bit disgusted, I wanted to love these movies like I loved the LOTR trilogy.

The Hobbit was a waste of time, for me. painful.

The animal situation is monitored quite closely in Vancouver.
Saw some animals go down during the filming of The Thirteenth Warrior.
They hauled a couple of dead horses from the Vancouver horse racing track to the Campbell River location, (Elk Bay, to be exact), and used them "creatively".

fwiw:
I met, and befriended Jack Elam's son, Scott, on that production. He was the king's herald.
Quite the life, he has lived.

I TOLD them not to leave the horses in the same field with Smaug. But does anyone listen to me? Noooooooooo.......