Cruel Camera video - animals don't want to be movie stars

January 20, 2008

Here's the video of Cruel Camera in regard to "animals don't want to be movie stars". Hard to watch - warning. http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/cruelcamera/video.html The saddest commentary on the most barbaric species - humans. Against our better nature TheStar.com - entertainment - Against ourbetter nature January 16, 2008 Vinay MenonJust a wild guess: animals do not want to be movie stars.And after watching a report on the fifth estate (CBC, 9 tonight) thatisboth maddening and saddening, who could

possibly blame them? But let's start at the beginning.On May 5, 1982, the investigative series broadcast a landmark storytitled"Cruel Camera." In that piece, reporter Bob McKeown unleashed somedevastating truths about the mistreatment and outright cruelty animalssuffered while "working" in showbiz.You may be familiar with a few notorious examples from the early-to-mid20thcentury: the nearly 100 horses that were killed during the climacticchariotrace in Ben-Hur; the horse that perished after a stuntman rode it overa70-foot cliff in Jesse James; the lion that was stabbed to death inTarzan.For years, animals were treated with cavalier disregard for the mostfrivolous and revolting reason: our amusement. As McKeown now discovers - 25 years after his original report -Hollywood isstill no place for inhabitants of the natural world. During filming of Flicka in 2005, for example,

one horse died an"agonizingdeath" after it was kicked in the head during a rodeo scene thatspiralledout of control, turning into a stampede.This despite the fact that monitors from the American HumaneAssociation -which in the past year alone has collaborated on more than 1,000productions- were on set to ensure safety.That organization issues its now widely recognized closing creditsapproval,"No animals were harmed in the making of this film." Yet, curiously,Flickadid not receive an "unacceptable" rating because the AHA concluded thetragedy was an accident.The implication made by some, including horseman Roland Vincent, anextra inFlicka and eyewitness to the commotion that preceded the gruesomedeath, isthe AHA is simply too close to the studios.Another startling revelation: the manipulation and lies containedwithinmany wildlife documentaries and nature

films.Consider the classic White Wilderness, which ran under Disney'sTru-LifeAdventures brand. The film, which won an Academy Award and is stillavailable on DVD, contains a scene in which a polar bear cub strugglestoascend a snowy mountain. Before long, it careens helplessly,perilously,down the steep slope as cameras are rolling.Viewers believed the cub was a wild animal in its natural Arctichabitat.But the cub was actually placed on a film set built specifically fortheharrowing sequence. In another scene, lemmings are shown committing "mass suicide," whichofcourse is a popular myth. Like the bear, they were not filmed in theArctic,but in Calgary, where they were catapulted off a cliff from an unseenturntable. From the Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom to a scene in Sir DavidAttenborough's Polar Bear: The Arctic Warrior, tonight's documentaryuncovers deceptions, then and

now, that will make you question theentirewildlife canon.Some of tonight's most heartbreaking scenes involve chimpanzees and thegrimfate that awaits when the cameras stop rolling. The fifth estateobtainedpolice footage that showed the chimps from Race to Space and a certainSeinfeld episode being hunted down and shot to death after escapingfromunlocked cages at a roadside zoo in Nebraska."I got him," one of the shooters can be heard saying calmly as the pooranimal shrieks in agony."Cruel Camera" should not be missed. But be warned: it's not an easyprogramto watch.Because to watch a caged baby chimp clutch a red ball and rockimpassivelywith dead-eyed anguish is to feel a blinding shame only humans canknow. The question is not,Can they reason? nor,Can they talk? but,Can they suffer? Jeremy Bentham The question is not,Can they reason? nor,Can they talk? but,Can they suffer? Jeremy Bentham