Rarely do I get upset at various organizations in America. The great thing about being a citizen of the United States is that you can belong to any organization no matter how altruistic (The Red Cross), misguided (The Flat Earth Society), or delusional (Scientology.) Personally, I have nothing against PETA. In fact I'm all for it. People who treat animals in a cruel, demeaning, and malicious way ought to be horse whipped. (I'm looking at you Michael Vick.) I can't imagine how apeshit my wife would go if someone abused our cats. You think Alec Baldwin is prone to anger? Multiply that by about a billion and you'll get an idea of how my wife would react. She'd shake up a can of whupass the size of the Guinness brewery on anyone who touched Moe or Ferb.
But I digress.
Having said all this I take extreme issue with an organization, any organization, that slings unfounded and unproven accusations at other people. And much to my disappointment, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) has done so, leveling charges of animal cruelty against director Peter Jackson and the movie studio. PETA alleges that 27 animals were either killed or mistreated during the production of The Hobbit. Jackson and the studio were quick to respond:
The Hobbit production has always instituted swift and immediate investigations in to any concerns of any kind over the treatment of animals under its care. A prompt and thorough investigation into the recent unsubstantiated allegations by the American organisation, PETA, in to the ‘hobbling’ of a horse during the making of The Hobbit was undertaken. No evidence of such a practice was found to have occurred at any time. Further, the production contacted the owner of the horse concerned who provided the following statement: “I am 100% happy with the return of Shanghai and his condition. In the term that he was leased he was picked up and returned to me two times. On both occasions there was not a mark on him and he was healthy and happy. He has shown no signs of ill-treatment. I would not hesitate in leasing him to the movie again.”
To date, the only horse wranglers whose treatment of animals fell below the production’s standard of care seem to be the two wranglers who have chosen to level this new accusation on the eve of the premiere of the first Hobbit film and who were dismissed by the production over a year ago. Reports of their actions are documented in several written statements dating back to October 2011.
The production regrets that PETA has chosen to make such a serious accusation, which has distressed many of the dedicated Kiwis who worked with animals on the films – including trainers, wranglers, care-givers, farm workers and animal health care professionals – without properly vetting the source from which they received this information.
To break this down into crasser verbiage, this is a giant "fuck you" to PETA and well deserved I might add. What's even more egregious is the timing of PETA's allegations. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey opens in three weeks. This is clearly a blatant attempt by PETA to negatively impact box office results. News flash PETA: IT AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN. In the future PETA if you want to level allegations of this magnitude against someone, you might want to have things called "facts" and "proof" to back it up. Otherwise you might find a disgruntled Tolkien fan shoving a replica sword of Anduril up your posterior.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey opens December 14th.
Dude stole my lunch
ReplyDeleteLmfao!! Well played mauer
ReplyDelete