Jana J. Monji

SDCC Panel Animals on Screen and Off Putting Comments

For SDCC, I decided to go animal-themed so attending the panel, “Animals on Screen,” sponsored by Lions, Tigers & Bears seemed like a natural choice. I like animals. I didn’t like the panel. If you didn’t look into the statements made, you would be misled and that’s problematic, especially since the presentation at SDCC was essentially the same as the panel at WonderCon with a few minor tweaks.

In California, all three large animals have been a concern. At one time, California was home to large cats like the mountain lion and jaguar. The California state flag and the mascot of UCLA and UCL testify to the once prominent grizzly bear population. Bears were recently the topic of a depiction of how women face fear from men, but until last year the only fatality from a bear attack, with the death of Patrice Miller (8 November 2023),  had been attributed to bears in training or captive situations.

For a while, the lion Californians were watching was a mountain lion that did eventually die too young. I’ve seen a mountain lion in the wild; they are elusive and endangered.

Tigers are another story, including the deadly tiger escape in 2007 at the San Francisco Zoo and a hoarding situation in Riverside. In 2003, the LA Times reported more than 90 tigers were found dead at the Tiger Rescue.

Tigers and other big cats have been finding a home in California though for a long time.  The Times quoted former actress Tippi Hendren because at the time she ran a wildlife sanctuary in Acton. Also involved was Chuck Traisi of Fund for Animals.

Hendren’s Acton-based Roar Foundation/Shambala Preserve, which was founded in 1972,  seems to still be active. It seems that Hedren introduced the Big Cats and Safety Protection Act over a decade ago. The bill (HR 1998 and S 1381) seems to have become the Big Cat Public Safety Act. The Big Cat Public Safety Act (H.R. 263) was signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2022.

Lions, Tigers & Bears was, according to its own website established in 2002 by founder and director Bobbi Brink. The panel makes clear that Brink “was crucial” in the passing of the Big Cat Public Safety Act. Yet the act was introduced to the House by Illinois representative Mike Quigley and to the Senate by Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Susan Collins (R-ME), Thomas Carper (D-DE), and Richard Burr (D-NC). While it had 43 co-sponsors from California, it had a total of 258 co-sponsors.

According to Animal Legal Defense Fund press release:

In the spring of 2020, the Animal Legal Defense Fund teamed up with Blackfish Director Gabriela Cowperthwaite to launch an online petition urging Congress to pass the Big Cat Public Safety Act to help end this cruel wildlife trade. Dozens of Hollywood stars signed onto the online petition, including Kate Mara, Rooney Mara, Joaquin Phoenix, Edie Falco, Hilary Swank, Iggy Pop, Ireland Baldwin, Kim Basinger, Ruby Rose, Paul Wesley, Christian Serratos, Nikki Reed, Ian Somerhalder, Teresa Palmer, Glenn Close, Anjelica Huston, Justin Theroux, Christopher Walken, Mena Suvari, Steve Aoki, Alan Cumming, Ed Begley, Alison Pill, Jane Lynch, Olivia Wilde, Kate del Castillo, Charlotte Ross, Kristin Bauer, Sarah Silverman, Whitney Cummings, Jenny Slate, and Jackson Galaxy.

The WonderCon and the SDCC panel began with a disclaimer of sorts, explaining that the American Humane has been invited but declined to send a representative. Then, there were some disparaging comments, some of which were untrue, but first, let’s look at the panelists for SDCC.

The Canadian-born producer and and science fiction author (“Rings of Orbis” universe) PJ Haarsma is best known as the producer (along with Alan Tudyk and Nathan Fillion) of the web series “Con Man.” His work with animals doesn’t seem to be extensive.

Haarsma and Drew Lewis are both co-owners of Redbear Films, and according to Linkedin.com, Lions, Tigers & Bears is one of their clients.

Mark A.J. Nazal won a 2017 Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Special Visual Effects in a Supporting Role for “Gotham” (shared with Tom Mahoney, Matthew Wheel Hunt, Alex Gitler, Sina San, Michael Capton, Jon Anastasiades, Ryan Bauer and Randy Little).

The panel was introduced by Michelle Koshman of AMB Publicity who served as moderator for both panels–WonderCon and SDCC. At both panels, Koshman posted that they did get in contact with American Humane and “the are the ones that give that accreditation “no animals were harmed in the making of this film but they weren’t able to be here today.”

Koshman further explains, “They did send over a one sheet and ….they did compare themselves to like welfare agents for children on set” because they had been involved in that at the beginning. Yet Koshman pointed out that Brink is concerned about what happens not just on the set since often these animal actors disappear from public.

Haarsma noted, “There’s also that idea that no animals were hurt on set is a little mischievous because they used that on ‘The Hobbit’ but 27 animals died on the set of ‘The Hobbit.’ Three chickens were mauled by dogs; seven horses wandered off and died somehow. A bunch of goats died; we don’t know but they don’t consider that because of the film. Yet they were used; they were brought to the film set and they died there. So where is the line. Like is it nothing? No animals period. Or where’s the line?”

Koshman added,  “The way I understand it is that a director gets certified and with that certification, they’re able to make any film use that certification and say, ‘No animals were harmed in the film.’ So the checks and balances is still a little unclear.”

Yet the incident with “The Hobbit” was well publicized and a variety of articles show the problems faced by American Humane, one is jurisdiction and the other is actually facts.  The animals did not die on set. The animals died at the farm where they were being kept.

This is a case where the interests of American Humane and PETA aligned which is not always true. So during the talk, it was important to note where a US-based organization had jurisdiction and where it did not. American Humane did not have jurisdiction to assess animal welfare of the set. That jurisdiction belonged to the authorities in New Zealand.

Because of American Humane Association’s monitoring of the animal action which included having a licensed veterinarian on the scene, no animals were harmed on set during filming of “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.” However, upon learning of injuries and deaths of animals while being housed at a working farm 186 miles from the main set and 26 miles from the soundstage, American Humane Association went beyond its jurisdiction and authority to visit, examine and make safety recommendations and improvements to the farm. These recommendations were implemented a year ago, bringing a higher level of animal welfare to all animals living on the site into the future.

This incident took place in 2012, over a decade ago and although it was mentioned in the panel, no information about the AHA’s protest nor possible subsequent progress was included. This cast the AHA in an unfairly negative light.

The two incidents that the panel used both at WonderCon and at SDCC were also not recent. The first was about one of the tigers used for the film “Life of Pi.” The video was obtained by PETA and posted eight years ago on YouTube (22 December 2015).

Nazal said, “‘Life of Pi’ won the Academy Award for visual effects with that tiger. The question became why did they make those choices to actually have a real tiger on set. I know for a fact that they didn’t want the actor to be interacting with tiger because of potential hazards. Therefore the CGI tiger was created but there were still some moments where that happened and so the question was why. Some of that could be audience perception at the time like the perception of CG and how people react knowing everything was CG and there wasn’t anything real in it.”

The incident in the PETA video takes place in Canada and it should be emphasized that this was after the release of “Life of Pi” in 2012 and that the film used more than one tiger, but also relied heavily on CGI.

 

This specific tiger apparently died in 2013 according to an archived article from the Torrance Star News.

The other video is from a California trainer in 2008. Rocky was a captive Grizzly bear being taught to fake an attack on 22 April 2008. The bear had been featured in a film and the person who died, Stephan Miller, 39, was a cousin of the trainer, Randy Miller of Predators in Action. Patrice Miller, who died in a Downieville black bear attack does not seem to be related to Stephan.

 

 

 

Rocky, the bear who was being trained, did end up at Lions, Tigers & Bears in 2022.

Brink was also involved in the rescue of animals formerly with the now infamous “Tiger King” zoo.

According to the Spectrum News 1 report, Brink world with several other accredited sanctuaries and a total of 69 big cats were removed from the Thackery, Oklahoma Tiger King Park.

The panel noted that audiences can be powerfully effected by animals that aren’t real, but Lewis felt “directors are nowadays pushing for that realistic vibe.”

Haarsma said, “Everyone has a visceral reaction to animals. When we see something in film, it’s very important that it’s grounded in some element of reality for us.” Audiences may react to marketing of real animals used in a film versus CGI, although no statistical information to support this was introduced.

Where animals end up when they are past their prime is a major concern and that even applies to domestic animals. However, this presentation was hindered by the misrepresentation of some incidents and other organizations. If PETA, which came out against dog shows like Westminster, can at times be allied with AHA (which is not affiliated with AKC but has shown no opposition to conformation shows), it seems unwise and even petty to criticize AHA for an incident that found it allied with PETA, particularly in a way that is misleading. The panel could have used diversity but was instead an unfortunate echo chamber that seemed mostly designed to get more charitable contributions for one organization.

 

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