Movies Made Easy: Steal Humane Approval

Just steal it, it’s easier!  Lately it seems like everywhere you look, you find people who decided to make up their own rules, leaving the rest of us to pick up the pieces after them. And now some movie makers are at it, awarding their own work with the American Humane Association (AHA) “seal of approval” label, “No Animals Were Harmed”, without the pesky task of actually having had the AHA representative on set to ensure no animals were harmed! Movies made easy.

The AHA has a stringent set of standards that their highly trained Certified Animal Safety Representative employ. But hey, why not drag them through court …maybe over time the cost will make them drop the case, and the movie moguls can then just do whatever they want. Public trust and professional integrity be damned.

“American Humane sets standards of care for animals in entertainment, upholds our Guidelines for the Safe Use of Animals in Filmed Media, and records objective reports from the set attesting to the treatment of the animals,” said Karen Rosa, American Humane’s vice president in charge of the Film & TV Unit. “Films that meet these standards are eligible to carry the end credit, and this misuse of American Humane’s registered trademark is an affront to those producers who legitimately and conscientiously meet those standards.”

Here’s a list from the American Humane’s Film & TV Unit of recent films using deceptive and unauthorized end credits:

– Adam by Olympus Pictures, Deer Path Productions, Serenade Films, Vox3 Films.

– District 9by WingNut Films Limited, Key Creatives and LLC/QED Intl.

– Easy Virtue by Ealing Studios, Fragile Films, Endgame Ent, Odyssey Ent.

– How to Lose Friends and Alienate People by Number 9 Films.(How’s this for irony!)

– Shrink by Ignite Entertainment, Ignite Productions, Ithaka Entertainment and Trigger Street Productions.

Legal prep work has begun, with first notice letters going out to all offenders. Some have agreed to remove the credit; others have not responded.

Rosa offered that viewers can always check out the American Humane website to make sure of the rating given to a film, and to get the details on how the animal actors achieved the goal of their roles to avoid pain or injury.

Looks like distributors will have another job added to their list of duties, verifying that the AHA actually awarded the film in question with their seal of approval.  Just another sign of our times?  Read more…