May20
AHA Gives Speed Racer "Unacceptable" Rating. No One Notices.
Posted at 08:59 AM | Permalink
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Comments (9)
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Quick recap for you, in case you missed it:
1) Late last summer, PETA contacted the producers of Speed Racer to urge them to use alternatives to live animals on set, after a chimpanzee bit a young actor.
2) Despite thousands of emails from individuals who were made aware of this abuse by PETA’s campaign, the Speed Racer team continued to use live animals—and another incident occurred in Germany: A representative of the American Humane Association (AHA) witnessed a trainer hitting a chimpanzee on set.
3) The AHA gave the movie an “unacceptable” rating on their site. No one noticed.
The question here is as follows: What is the point of having a representative of your organization on the sets of movies if the only thing they’re empowered to do is write a bad review on their website? Why not just send the guy from IWatchStuff.com? He could do all that and make it witty and interesting.
The other point here (which the AHA conveniently glosses over) is that most abuse occurs off the set, during training. Even when the AHA rates a movie "unacceptable,” as with this case, the animal trainer is allowed to continue working with the animal. And when the film-industry-funded AHA does rate a film "acceptable," all that means is that no animals were harmed on the set while in plain sight of an AHA representative. Which is like saying you know your kids don’t smoke pot ’cuz you’ve never seen them doing it.
There are some things that can be done, though. PETA's German affiliate has just filed a formal complaint in Potsdam calling for an immediate investigation and the filing of all appropriate charges against Greg Lille, the California-based animal trainer who assaulted the chimpanzee on the Speed Racer set. If Greg Lille is found to have violated German animal protection laws, it’ll be a lot harder for him to ever work with animals in the future. We’ll let you know how that turns out. And there’s plenty more information about PETA’s campaign to get animals out of show business for good on our No More Monkey Business website.
P.S. Speed Racer was a monumental box office disaster. :-)
TAGGED:
aha monkey business speed racer
Comments
I voted for Bob Barker and Pamela Anderson as the sexiest vegetarians because I know they're serious about the cause.
Incidentally, people like Hayden Panettiere CANNOT be taken seriously. She represents Dooney & Bourke, which uses leather in each and every one of their products. How can she possibly be mentioned on the PeTA sight in a good light?
Posted by: Abigail Burns | May 20, 2008 09:45 AM
AHA is an industry front group, not an animal protection group. Their farmed animal welfare standards (so meat companies can call their products "humane") are patheticly lax.
Posted by: Chris | May 20, 2008 11:22 AM
I totally agree with you. Peta is notorious for using celebs who completely miss the point. Ex: Eva Mendes, Kimmora Simmons, all of them wear and use animals products
Posted by: guerline04 | May 20, 2008 12:34 PM
Good points Jack and Chris. The animals deserve real representation from an advocacy group that puts them first.
But of course all industries that exploit animals accuse groups like Peta of being too extreme to represent them. They want toothless groups so it can be 'business as usual' with the false assurance to the public that they follow humane standards.
(Talk about awkward sentence construction-mine was a doozy!)
I'm even happier that Speed Racer bombed now. And you singlehandedly did that Jack. Thank you!
Posted by: lynda downie | May 21, 2008 12:23 AM
I believe people noticed.
No one I know has seen it because I told them not to and the movie has not done well.
Posted by: polarbears2008 | May 21, 2008 09:41 AM
That is so sad every living breathing thing has the right live with the same rights as humans! It disgusts me to think of how these people treat fellow humans if they honestly think that its ok to treat innocent animals like that!
Posted by: jenny | May 21, 2008 11:20 PM
hey abigail burns - you're right about hayden panettiere! she says she's with peta, and then not only does she promote leather, but she has a lot of got milk? ads out too! wtf??
Posted by: Jessie | May 22, 2008 08:10 PM
i agree with jenny there but dont forget humans are animals but to boost our own egos we've classed ourselves in a totally different category and removed our selves as been conected in any way to the other creatures just like us. aparently its because we're so much smarter *cough* maybe in our concrete jungle environment but i bet most of us wouldn't 5 minutes away from our technology that other animals dont need and can survive much better without. we have like a gazillion handi-caps that give us an advantage other wise we would have died out mileniams ago
Posted by: radish | May 23, 2008 02:25 AM
I am going to go vote right now for the sexiest celeb veg. Hayden will not be my choice. If she thinks that she can have her cake and drink it down with a big glass of milk, she's got it all wrong. Everyone knows leather and fur belongs to the animal it was born with.
(FYI...Awesome cake is made with egg replacer and soy milk! :) )
Posted by: carol | May 27, 2008 02:45 PM