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 The Hollywood Reporter has a long, stunning investigative article out today called “Animals Were Harmed.” THR journalist Gary Baum presents compelling evidence that the American Humane Association, the nonprofit organization charged with monitoring film and TV productions for animal abuse, has systematically hidden animal deaths in the interest of preserving friendly relations with powerful Hollywood producers. 
 
 The deaths of three horses on the set of HBO’s horse racing series Luck—which was overseen by the AHA—are well known (and probably contributed to Luck’s cancellation), but the stomach-turning incidents go far beyond Luck: There’s the dog that was punched by its trainer on the set of Eight Below, the chipmunk that was dropped and stepped on by its handler during the filming of Failure to Launch, and the dozens of sheep and goats that died during a hiatus in the filming of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. The AHA, which receives most of its funding from industry groups, excused these and other incidents by saying that they were unintentional, or that because they happened off-camera, they don’t count. Most of Baum’s sources are anonymous, but there are a few jaw-droppingly wrongheaded quotes, like this one: 
 
 In an interview with THR, Candy Spelling, a national AHA board member, defends the organization’s intent behind the “No Animals Were Harmed” end credit. “I think what people think [it means] is that when a horse dies in the movies, it didn’t really die,” she says. “I think that people think [the AHA’s monitoring] is just when the cameras are rolling.” 
 
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 Right. No one cares if you punch, step on, or starve animals as long as there’s no camera turned on nearby. If that’s the best defense the AHA can come up with, I hope the Department of Agriculture, the governmental agency usually tasked with protecting animals from neglect and abuse, begins sending agents to Hollywood very, very soon. Baum’s article is the kind of public interest journalism that ought to result in policy changes, and the entire thing is worth reading. ||||| These releases reflect the views of the issuing entity and are not reviewed or edited by the Sacramento Bee staff. More information on PR Newswire can be found on their web site . You can contact the service with questions or concerns here 
 
 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Hollywood Reporter recently ran a story that distorts the work and record of a respected nonprofit organization that has kept millions of beloved animal actors safe on film and television sets around the world for more than 70 years. 
 
 (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20101108/DC97343LOGO) 
 
 The article paints a picture that is completely unrecognizable to us or anyone who knows American Humane Association's work. Far from allowing abuse or neglect to occur, we have a remarkably high safety record of 99.98 percent on set. Over a span of many years, despite our best efforts, there have occasionally been rare accidents, most of them minor and not intentional. Regrettably, there have even been some deaths, which upset us greatly, but in many of the cases reported, they had nothing to do with the animals' treatment on set, or occurred when the animals were not under our care. For example: 
 
 The article claimed that a dog suffering from cancer died during the production of "Our Idiot Brother." Sadly, a dog did take ill and was indeed diagnosed with cancer, but the illness was not work-related and was not due to any activity related to production. 
 
 Sadly, a dog did take ill and was indeed diagnosed with cancer, but the illness was not work-related and was not due to any activity related to production. The article suggested that a horse died during post-production after being filmed for "War Horse." What it does not say however is that AHA's jurisdiction does not extend to post-production and transit. In fact, the horse mentioned finished its work and was checked out of production. In transit home, according to a veterinarian, it died of natural causes. 
 
 The article seemed to lay blame for 27 animal deaths during "The Hobbit" when in fact the animals were not under AHA's jurisdiction or authority in any way. We only monitor animals when they are on the set. When we heard reports months afterwards that animals might have died on a working farm there, we voluntarily sent representatives out to the farm to inspect it and make safety recommendations, which were instituted by production at considerable cost, ensuring better welfare for all the animals on the farm. We were transparent with all the details and our outrage over the regrettable loss of life. Here is our official public statement we made at the time for the record: http://www.americanhumane.org/about-us/newsroom/news-releases/aha-the-hobbit-animal-deaths.html 
 
 When a Certified Safety Representative is on the set and an incident occurs, the animal stops working, is given veterinary care and not allowed to return to work until it is reported sound by the attending veterinarian. This practice is vital. Recognizing injury is vital to preventing abuse from occurring, thus providing humane protections for animal actors. Although the article criticizes the distinction between accidental injury and intentional harm, that is precisely why the program exists - to reasonably make that distinction. This program is about prevention and as with any good safety program, American Humane Association is continually improving . 
 
 Under the new senior administration of American Humane Association, a comprehensive program review of the No Animals Were Harmed® program was conducted in 2011 and 2012. These actions are bringing about game-changing innovations and enhancements that are being implemented to further increase the rigor of the safety standards while improving the quality of oversight for enhanced protections for animals working in entertainment. This new administration has made broad, sweeping changes for enhanced protections for animals working in film and entertainment. These changes were necessary, mission-driven, and will continue to build a better and safer future for the animals we love. The improvements include: 
 
 1) The creation of a Scientific Advisory Committee, composed of global experts in animal welfare, who are right now reviewing our comprehensive and science-based "Guidelines for the Safe Use of Animals in Filmed Media" – the bible of the industry – to make sure we are doing everything possible to protect animal actors and include the newest findings and research on animal welfare 
 
 2) We have brought on Dr. Kwane Stewart, a respected veterinarian, to head the program and bring a new level of rigor and science to our mission and passion to protect the animals in our care 
 
 3) As part of our efforts to further improve safety, we recently posted positions to hire licensed veterinarians to serve as our Certified Safety Representatives, and place them in geographic areas across the country where high volumes of filmmaking occurs, including Texas, New Mexico, New York, and Louisiana. We are top-tiering our staff to bring an even higher level of expertise to our important work, and basing our safety reps closer to sets, which will help keep down travel and housing costs for the charity 
 
 4) Earlier this year, we implemented a policy that if any animal is seriously injured or dies on set to commission an independent, third-party investigation to find out what happened so that we may prevent as much as is possible such incidents in the future 
 
 American Humane Association has made tough changes to ensure that the No Animals Were Harmed® program is structured to meet the humane charter with which we have been entrusted. It's all about the animal actors and ensuring their safety . Abuse in film and entertainment is not pervasive, as the salacious headlines imply; rather our experience is that most everyone we work with in production settings want to do right by the animals, as do we. 
 
 We are extremely proud of the work American Humane Association has done for more than 70 years to protect millions of animals on movie and television production sets. We are a mission-driven small nonprofit that has not only worked to protect animals working in film and entertainment across the country and around the globe, we have done so by utilizing millions of dollars of our own funds so that the certified animal safety representatives could be on more than 2,000 sets a year, making sure that some 100,000 of our most beloved animal co-stars are treated humanely and kept safe each and every year. 
 
 For us, the welfare of the animals always comes first, which is reflected by our remarkable safety rate of 99.98 percent. Our overall record for years is one of caring and success. 
 
 SOURCE American Humane Association 
 
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– That "no animals were harmed" disclaimer that crops up at the end of movies courtesy of the American Humane Association seems straightforward enough. But an investigation by Gary Baum at the Hollywood Reporter finds that plenty of animals do, in fact, get harmed on sets—even for movies that end up with the label. In one of the more buzzed-about pieces from the story, Baum gets hold of an email from an AHA rep on the set of Life of Pi that describes how the "tiger damn near drowned," instructs the recipient to keep it quiet, and adds, "I have downplayed the f--- out of it." (Salon reprints the full email here.) There's also the chipmunk that got stepped on and killed in Failure to Launch, the dog that got repeatedly punched by its trainer in Eight Below, the nearly 30 goats and sheep that died in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, and all manners of injuries and even deaths to horses over the years on a slew of films. The examples go on and on—there's all kinds of wiggle room from the AHA, especially if the accident occurred off-camera instead of during filming or was accidental—and Baum's piece suggests that AHA has gotten too "cozy" with the industry to adequately protect animals. It includes this quote from an AHA board member defending the "no animals were harmed" disclaimer: “I think what people think [it means] is that when a horse dies in the movies, it didn’t really die,” she says. "I think that people think [the AHA's monitoring] is just when the cameras are rolling." At Slate, LV Anderson finds that tough to take: By those standards, "no one cares if you punch, step on, or starve animals as long as there’s no camera turned on nearby," she writes. "If that’s the best defense the AHA can come up with, I hope the Department of Agriculture, the governmental agency usually tasked with protecting animals from neglect and abuse, begins sending agents to Hollywood very, very soon." The AHA, meanwhile, calls the piece an inaccurate hatchet job in a statement picked up by the Sacramento Bee. Click to read the THR story in full.