‘The Hobbit’: Unexpected Cruelty
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New Zealand has been buzzing with excitement in anticipation of the upcoming release of Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, but disturbing allegations of a slew of animal deaths during the production have cast a dark shadow over the premiere. Although audiences will see an adventure story set in a fantasy world, the abuse and neglect that the animals involved in the filming experienced were far too real. In all, five horses, 12 chickens, a pony and several goats and sheep were allegedly maimed or killed. According to whistleblowers, all these incidents could have been prevented if director Peter Jackson’s lead trainer and the head of production had fulfilled their duties and heeded the warnings of several wranglers.
Reports of animal neglect coming from whistleblowers include the story of a horse named Shanghai, who 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 makeup and hair. Hobbling is an outright violation of the guidelines of the American Humane Association (AHA).
More alleged abuse took place where the animals were housed, with one horse killed and another injured after being placed with two highly strung geldings, despite concerns that the geldings would be too aggressive. Another horse was reportedly killed after falling off an embankment in a severely crowded paddock. Yet another horse died when the horses were moved to the stables – probably from colic, an extremely painful illness – after being fed large amounts of food that he wasn’t used to.
After this incident, the horses were reportedly moved back to the paddocks, where another horse had the skin and muscles of her leg torn away by wire fencing. It has also been reported that several goats and sheep died from worm infestations and from falling into the sinkholes that covered the farm. In addition, 12 chickens were mauled and killed by unsupervised dogs or trampled by other animals when left unprotected.
It is astonishing that these events could happen when the unit production manager was warned by his wranglers and the production was monitored by the AHA! Even more astonishing is that this movie was directed by Jackson, a master of computer-generated imagery (CGI). In a movie that features CGI monsters and hobbits, CGI animals would have fit in perfectly.
Jackson could have made The Hobbit without using a single animal – and he should have. Hurting and killing animals for the sake of a movie is unacceptable, not to mention preventable. And in the end, animals are not ours to use for entertainment or any other purpose.
Posted by Claire Fryer
Allison Andrewartha commented: 11-22-2012 at 7:16 AM
Absolutely disgusting – definately boycotting this movie and anything else Peter Jackson has done. I thought all movies were supposed to have people from ASPCA or similar groups to make sure this sort of thing didn’t happen. It’s 2012, not 1912 when people were still ignorant. MAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Tania commented: 11-22-2012 at 7:50 PM
20+ animals dead all just for a movie. disgusting.
CensorshipMuch commented: 11-24-2012 at 9:29 PM
The person who is most at fault is not Peter Jackson. It is the Animal Coordinator Steve Old.
He was responsible for leasing that farm which was a hilly sheep farm unsuitable for horses. Several other suitable properties were put forward by the horse trainer.
Old was also responsible for hiring staff that were not qualified to look after horses and vetoed every attempt of the horse trainer to hire suitable staff. He also prevented the horse trainer from making sensible training decisions. He insisted on his girlfriend training horses even though she was not qualified to even be riding them and caused many problems with their training when she did ride them. He also insisted on other unqualified people being allowed to ride horses.
Steve Old also did not put any safe and appropriate training facilities in place. This was because he wanted to ensure he got the job by coming in under the budget outlined by another more qualified Animal Coordinator. He prevented the horse trainer from putting any facilities in place other than those that the horse trainer paid for out of his own pocket.
Steve Old turned a blind eye to wilful abuse of animals – one case in which his own father was the abuser of a pig. This same person – Les Old – also sexually harassed a female staff member. When she told Steve that Les had groped her Steve fired her.
Steve used production money and resources on his own private projects such as The Great NZ Trek. He pulled staff members away from caring for the animals on the film and sent them to do work on projects elsewhere during which time they were paid with film money.
He bullied staff members into keeping quiet about any negative aspects of their work and told them they would be fired if they didn’t fall into line.
The head horse trainer, another horse trainer and other wranglers resigned from the film after two months because their complaints about animal welfare were ignored and were not passed on to people higher up in the chain of command. Emails were sent after they resigned (in Feb2011) detailing everything that was dangerous and needed to be rectified. I understand that these emails have only recently been passed on to Peter Jackson.
David Bishop commented: 11-28-2012 at 5:40 PM
Fully agree with Allison. Boycott this movie! and any other he makes. Prosecution should be the outcome for this film maker.
David Bishop commented: 11-28-2012 at 5:42 PM
The overall responsibility lies with a ‘company director and in this case Peter Jackson
Joanne Lonergan commented: 11-29-2012 at 10:04 PM
This is disgusting. With all the special effects that are available esp to Peter Jackson. This is unacceptable, he should be charged with animal cruelty
marcel commented: 12-9-2012 at 11:27 AM
I think it is unforgiveble for somebody with so much technoligy available in the movie world that people like peter jackson can get away with these ignorent actions towords animals take youre responsebillity peter jackson !!!!!!!!!
Gypsy commented: 12-12-2012 at 2:40 PM
Until audiences ask the same questions about how their entertainment has been created that they would about where their food/clothing/medicines come from, the industry will escape scrutiny. It’s time that all movies featuring animals were made totally accountable for the welfare of the animals involved as much as for the human actors. This is deeply saddening.
Robyn Waters commented: 12-12-2012 at 5:40 PM
I will boycott and not see the film because of these cruel actions by the people making the film.
Lynda Plummer commented: 12-13-2012 at 8:54 AM
I won’t be going to see this movie.
Janet Walder commented: 12-15-2012 at 12:09 AM
This is SO disappointing. I was looking forward to this movie. Now I’ll be boycotting it on principle AND telling everyone why. This is 2012 for goodness sake. This callous treatment of living beings is totally out of order
Ruth Bell commented: 12-15-2012 at 1:28 PM
Hit them where it hurts. refuse to watch/buy/recommend this film to anyone.
In this day and age there are better ways of using animals in films and far superior trainers than the old way so ingrained into men to be the dominant one [its only an animal ] mentality.wise. Wise they are not.
Ruth Bell
Western Australia
Raffi commented: 12-21-2012 at 10:47 PM
I boycott all movies! I torrent them instead >:D
And this is really horrible. I never knew about this because it seems like when I ask, people give a stupid answer like ‘They aren’t injured or they don’t get killed’.
Really disgusting.
Screw Peter Jackson and everyone involved in this. I really hope New Zealand sues them.
t fisher commented: 1-7-2013 at 6:28 PM
i agree with gypsy. we need to ask questions about everything, find out what is involved in producing films. we fail to ask what goes into our food or even our water. we are too busy with things we dont need and spend all our energy on earning more money for these.