Film & TV Unit

On-set monitoring…Movie ratings and reviews…Stories from the set…Profiles of animal-loving filmmakers. American Humane’s Film & Television Unit provides all of these services while managing to keep pace with an entertainment industry that uses more animals than ever. As the only animal welfare organization with oversight sanctioned by the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), American Humane assumes the monumental task of providing protection for animal actors and information to the public within the confines of our worldwide nonprofit parameters. Today’s consumers, increasingly savvy about animal welfare issues, have forged a partnership with American Humane to demand greater responsibility and accountability from entertainment entities that use animal actors.

To survive and thrive for more than 65 years, the Los Angeles-based Film & TV Unit has continued to evolve in order to better serve our constituents. Always seeking ways to improve our effectiveness, American Humane regularly examines the strengths and needs of our Guidelines for the Safe Use of Animals in Filmed Media, ratings and reviews, and end-credit language to ensure that we are providing the best service we can to the animals -- and to the public who cares about their well-being.

Evolution of the Guidelines

In the 1960s, American Humane’s efforts to standardize animal care on movie sets came in the form of a tri-fold “Safety Bulletin” -- rudimentary by today’s standards. And when the first codified Guidelines for the Safe Use of Animals in Filmed Media were issued in 1988, they simply referred to “all sentient beasts.” In the ensuing years, these Guidelines have been periodically updated and expanded to address species-specific standards in response to new scientific data in the zoological field, as well as the changing dynamics of filmed media. An advisory panel consisting of veterinarians, national animal welfare leaders, film industry professionals, and animal behaviorists helps American Humane shape the Guidelines to make them as comprehensive as possible.

The latest version, published in June 2009, follows ongoing intensive evaluation, alteration, updates and, in some areas, expansion of guidelines by American Humane’s advisory panel of recognized authorities, including veterinarians, national animal welfare leaders, film industry professionals and primatologists, as well as experts on other species. It contains new information on topics such as Reality Programming, Camera Car Safety and Rodeo Simulation, as well as additions and revisions to existing chapters. It also contains more references to local, state and federal animal welfare codes and permits as part of productions’ responsibility, as well as references to the Safety Bulletins recommended by the Industry-Wide Labor-Management Safety Committee. We distribute spiral-bound, hard-copy editions free of charge to productions and industry personnel, and it is available for anyone to download it from our website.

Since the introduction of the Guidelines, animal accidents, illnesses and deaths on the set have sharply declined. Prior to 1980, American Humane listed 107 films as Unacceptable because of deliberate neglect or malice. From 1980 to 1988, when the Guidelines debuted, 31 films were found Unacceptable; and since 1988, only 16 films have received that ignoble distinction.

Evolution of the Ratings

In 1972, long before the cyber revolution, American Humane produced its first National Humane Review newsletter to inform members of how recently released movies scored, with regard to animal treatment. Back then, a far simpler rating system categorized movies as either Acceptable or Unacceptable. Those ratings were expanded in 1978 to include Believed Acceptable, Questionable and Inappropriate for Children. The Inappropriate for Children rating was discontinued in 1985 as more and more parents relied on the system designed by the Ratings Board of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).

In the past decade, film and television production has increased exponentially, and American Humane has gradually sharpened its movie rating system to reflect the realities of our coverage capabilities. Gone is the element of conjecture inherent to the Believed Acceptable and Questionable ratings. A new, basic rating structure was launched during the 2004 integration of our Film &TV Unit website under the umbrella site of the entire organization. American Humane has since fine-tuned those ratings as we grapple with the rise in productions and try to strike a balance with the staffing and fiscal limitations affecting all non-profit organizations.

For the first time, our highest rating goes beyond merely “acceptable” and deems films awarded the "No Animals Were Harmed"® end credit as Monitored: Outstanding. When our Certified Animal Safety Representatives™™ can monitor significant, but not all, animal action on cooperative productions, those films carry a modified end credit of “American Humane monitored the animal action” and earn a rating of Monitored: Acceptable.

Sometimes, an unpreventable illness, injury or fatality can occur to an animal on a monitored movie set. If, after a complete investigation, American Humane determines that the production followed the Guidelines and cooperated fully with our Safety Representatives, we will rate the film Monitored: Special Circumstances. Obviously, such a film could never carry the "No Animals Were Harmed" end credit. Instead, such films have always carried the modified disclaimer of “American Humane monitored the animal action.”

Films released prior to the July 2004 rollout of the new website -- such as “The Alamo”, “Hidalgo” and “American Outlaws” -- would receive a designation of Monitored: Special Circumstances if rated today. Monitored: Unacceptable, Not Monitored: Production Compliant, and Not Monitored round out the current ratings.

Evolution of the End Credit

The first end credit ever issued to a movie went to “The Doberman Gang” in 1972, with the attribution of American Humane as the oversight organization responsible for monitoring animal actors during productions. American Humane’s Western Regional Office in Hollywood -- as the Film & TV Unit was then known -- covered as many productions as it could in the 1960s and ‘70s, but achieving wide-scale compliance was complicated even then by the number of films shot overseas.

In 1996, American Humane began the process of standardizing the language of the end-credit disclaimer and provided producers with step-by-step information on how to earn it. American Humane made it known to consumers that supporting films which treated their animal actors humanely made an important statement to studios and filmmakers.

Prior to the implementation of more stringent rules governing our funding on international productions, American Humane worked jointly in Canada with the British Columbia SPCA and the Calgary Humane Society. For qualifying productions filmed in those regions, American Humane issued end-credit disclaimers that stated which foreign humane group co-monitored with us, in addition to the tagline of “No animal was harmed in the making of this film.” Another end-credit option popular with filmmakers was the version which stated, “Scenes appearing to place animals in jeopardy were simulated.”

In 2000, American Humane filed a trademark application for -- and was ultimately granted -- exclusive use of the phrases "No Animal Was Harmed"® and "No Animals Were Harmed"® to accompany our Film &TV Unit logo in movie end credits. In recent years, we have streamlined the end credit to read, “American Humane Association monitored the animal action. 'No Animals Were Harmed' in the making of this film.” This shift was made to solidify our branding efforts and increase our name recognition with the public.

With the advent of the Internet and the nascent Film &TV Unit website, American Humane discovered a powerful marketing tool that could engage consumers in the mission of protecting animal actors. People could now read reviews of films and learn how the animal action was achieved before they went to the theater. More importantly, seeing American Humane’s rating attached to the review helped the public “vote at the box office” by supporting films which had received our end-credit disclaimer.

The Road Ahead

The Film & TV Unit monitors a yearly average of more than 1,000 filmed productions, both domestically and internationally. We have set a goal to accrue more financial and staffing support to expand our coverage of foreign productions and non-SAG projects. But we must rely on public donations and other sponsorships to make progress in that area. Meanwhile, we will continue our endeavors to protect as many animals on television and movie sets as possible. Animal actors depend on us…and we know you do, too.