Pulse - October 2023 - 13

Belgian Malinois leaps off Halle Berry's back in a scene from John Wick: Chapter 3--Parabellum.
comprise eight pages, and cover the care and
safety of puppies, the protection of a dog's foot
pads against heat and cold, proof of vaccination,
general welfare, steps to prevent escape
and much more.
It wasn't always this way. In the early days
of Hollywood, animals were considered props
and often placed in jeopardy, and many were
killed. Trip wires were commonly used in westerns
to make horses fall down, often resulting
in broken legs and even death. Reptiles representing
dinosaurs, such as in the 1940 fantasy
film One Million B.C., often had rubber appliances
glued to them and were then forced to
fight other reptile species.
One of the very first animal actors was the
dog used in the 1905 silent British film Rescued
by Rover. Rin Tin Tin, one of the most
famous and popular animal actors in history,
debuted in 1924, saving Warner Bros. from
bankruptcy. When the first allegations of animal
cruelty in Hollywood arose a year later,
American Humane set up a committee to investigate
and advocate for better treatment.
The film industry established the Code of
Production in 1930, which contained provisions
for the humane treatment of animal actors.
It quickly became apparent that the rules
weren't being followed, however, and in 1937
American Humane attempted a program of
oversight in California, though it was hobbled
by lack of funding.
Many popular actors supported better treatPULSE
OCTOBER
2023
ment for their four-legged colleagues. While
making Charge of the Light Brigade, for example,
Errol Flynn condemned filmmakers who
insisted on putting horses and their riders in
increasingly perilous situations. It all came to
a head in 1939 when director Henry King had
a stunt rider and horse leap off a 70-foot cliff
into a raging river for the film Jesse James. The
rider survived, merely losing his hat, but the
horse was killed. American Human led a huge
protest against the film and opened a Western
Regional Office in Hollywood to advocate even
more vociferously on behalf of animals used in
motion pictures.
As evidenced by the John Wick films, efforts
to ensure the safety of animal actors
today is equal to that of their human counterparts.
Animals are no longer considered
disposal props, but actors whose training can
cost a lot of money.
Simpson imagines a day when computer
technology will render real animals obsolete in
Hollywood. A recent example is the 2020 20th
Century Studios adaptation of Jack London's
The Call of the Wild starring Harrison Ford.
Real dogs were used for a handful of scenes,
Simpson says, though the majority of the dog
sequences were computer generated.
" I do see this affecting Hollywood and I'm
on both sides of the fence, " Simpson says. " I
have a company and training animals is how we
make a living. But you can't always use live animals.
The bear attack in The Revenant could
not have been done with a live bear. What they
did with CG in that scene was groundbreaking.
CG has already replaced a lot of things like
elephants, bears, big cats and primates. But I
believe there will always be a need for live animal
actors. I did a movie with Channing Tatum
titled Dog, and I don't believe that movie could
have been made with CG because that dog gave
us real emotion that you could see in its face.
But I'm curious to see where the industry will
be in five years, and how much work will still be
left for live animals. " P
Sources:
*Andrew Simpson, Instinct Animals for Film.
*instinctforfilm.com
*https://humanehollywood.org/
*https://humanehollywood.org/guideline/
dog-guidelines/
Belgian Malinois in a scene from the Arc de Triompe set piece in John Wick: Chapter 4.
13

http://www.instinctforfilm.com https://www.humanehollywood.org/ https://www.humanehollywood.org/guideline/

Pulse - October 2023

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