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No Animals Were Harmed® - Film & TV Unit

Film & TV Unit

TV, Commercials & Student Films

Film & TV Unit logo

Not just movies -- American Humane monitors animal action in television shows, commercials and student films.

Television Programs:

American Humane Certified Animal Safety Representatives™ monitor animals used in many television programs.

Before American Humane can issue a disclaimer to a production, we must first screen the program. After we determine that American Humane’s Guidelines for the Safe Use of Animals in Filmed Media were followed and that no animals were harmed, American Humane can issue the end-credit disclaimer. Television episodes are compiled and edited mere days or sometimes hours before they air; therefore, productions often do not have time to include the disclaimer in the end credits. When the disclaimer does appear in the credits, it typically scrolls quickly and is difficult to notice.

Here are a few television programs that contained animal action monitored by American Humane:

30 Rock | According to Jim | Army Wives

Big Bang Theory | Big Love | Bones | Burn Notice

Castle | Criminal Minds | CSI (also NY and Miami)

Desperate Housewives | Eastwick | Entourage

Friday Night Lights | Gossip Girl | Greek

Grey's Anatomy | Heroes | House | In Plain Sight

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia | Lie To Me

Law and Order (also Criminal Intent and SVU) | Lost

Mad Men | Medium | Monk | My Name is Earl | NCIS

Nip/Tuck | Numbers | Osbournes Reloaded

Private Practice | Samantha Who

Sarah Connor Chronicles | The Bold and the Beautiful

The Closer | The Office | The Sarah Silverman Program

Saving Grace | Scrubs | True Blood

Two and a Half Men | Ugly Betty | The Unit

Weeds | Without a Trace

American Humane also monitors non-scripted programs, such as Animal Planet’s Puppy Bowl, Puppy Games and Animal Witness, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, 1 vs. 100, and Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader.

American Humane monitored certain episodes and scenes from Groomer Has It and Greatest American Dog,* which are considered reality shows. *Most reality programs are not Screen Actors Guild productions; therefore, they are not required to notify American Humane when animals are being filmed. And, unfortunately, reality programs typically do not contact American Humane to have their animal action monitored.

You can help change this. When you see a reality show that features animals that were not monitored by American Humane, contact the network that aired the program and express that you will not watch the program until it has American Humane’s involvement.


Commercials

American Humane Certified Animal Safety Representatives™ also monitor animals used in many television commercials. But because ads are short and have no “end credits,” they typically do not carry American Humane’s “No Animals Were Harmed” end-credit disclaimer.

So, while the public might not know whether a commercial was monitored by American Humane, the networks do. The policy of most networks is that a commercial containing an animal may not air unless it is accompanied by American Humane’s formal “Sign-Off” letter, which is issued only if American Humane determines that our Guidelines for the Safe Use of Animals in Filmed Media were followed and that no animals were harmed.

The Vitamin Water commercial with Shaq riding a horse on a racetrack? No animals were harmed. Those Aflac commercials with the cute duck that quacks the insurance company’s name? No animals were harmed.

Here are a few products whose recent commercials contained animal action monitored by American Humane:

Aflac | Arm & Hammer | Ask.com | AT&T | Audi

Bank of America | Bud Light | Budweiser

Burger King | Bush's Baked Beans | Capital One

Cinnamon Toast Crunch | Claritin | Clorox | Coca-Cola

Cotton | Denny's | Diet Mountain Dew | Dominos Pizza

Dunkin Donuts | Dutch Boy Paint | Febreeze | Friskies

Frontline | Geico | Glade | Heineken | Honda | Iams

Jack in the Box | John Deere | Juicy Juice | K9 Advantix

Levis | Lexus | Loreal | MasterCard | McDonald's

Meow Mix | Mercedes Benz | Mighty Dog | Miller High Life

Nissan | Oreo | Payless Shoes | Pedigree | Pepsi Max

Pepto Bismol | Petsmart | Purina | Saturn | Sears

Sprint | Subway | Taco Bell | Target | Time Warner Cable

T-Mobile | Tums | Verizon | Visa | Wal-mart

X-Box | Yoplait


Student/Short Films Monitored or Rated:

Here are a few Student Films and Short Films that American Humane monitored or issued an American Humane rating or disclaimer:

48 Film Project | Assumption | Baphomet's Den

Between the Sand and the Sky | Blunderkind

Bruno's Fortune | Bury the Axe | Cowboy

Death in Charge | Die Clown Die | Dog 41 | Dummy Hoy

Etienne! | Eureka | Fancy | Fenceline | Final Exam

Fish Out of Water | Getting Away | Guitar Lessons

Guns and Cookies | Hard Money | Hell on Wheels

Help, I Need a Pony | Helping Hooves | Hunter's Moon

I Believed | Judgment | Just Breathe | Kate and Jarod

Lavender Williams | Le Chat Est Mort

Los Dos Conquistadores | Lost and Found | Maki

Mechanical Pencil | Metamorphosis of Narcissus

Mr. Wrinkles | Multiple Choice

My Homework Ate My Dog | Napoleon | Next Door

None with Swift Feet

Only In New York, aka, Welcome to New York

Passive/Aggressive | Pool Time | Possessions

Rapline | Red Mesa | Relax | Roy G. Biv | Severed Tones

Slug | Spleenectomy | Stabbing Abby | Stray

Tender as Hellfire | Texas Girl | The 2000 Man

The 5th String

The Butcher's Daughter (aka: The Killing Frost)

The Fishing Trip | The Frost Whistle

The Great Observer | The Waiting Room

Through the Air to Calais | Two Sisters

Untitled Chicken Pieces | Unzipped

Walking on Turtle Island | Wedding for One

We Missed You Pete | White Radishes | Wolves

Youth Camp | You Just Never Know, aka, What a Day

Film & TV Unit

Attention: Animal Handlers/Trainers, Producers and Filmmakers:

American Humane’s Guidelines for the Safe Use of Animals in Filmed Media have recently been updated, including new information.

Make sure you have the latest version!

Gentlemen Gentlemen Broncos

Monitored: Acceptable

This This Is It

Monitored: Outstanding

Cirque Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant

Monitored: Outstanding

Where Where the Wild Things Are

Monitored: Acceptable

See more movie reviews.

NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN RECENT VERIZON AD

The Verizon commercial in which a man runs into a junkyard and encounters two pit bulls has garnered some concern from the public, including negative reaction from the animal-welfare community itself as being stereotypical of or misleading about the nature of pit bulls. Regardless of how the animals were depicted, viewers can rest assured that No Animals Were Harmed® in the making of this commercial. An American Humane Certified Animal Safety Representative™ was on the set during this entire production and ensured that the Guidelines for the Safe Use of Animals in Filmed Media were followed and that no animal was harmed. The well-rehearsed dog action involved two pit bulls who were specially trained to appear aggressive. Implementing this special aggression training, the trainers cued the dogs to growl and appear feisty. The dogs were mild-mannered around people and other animals and returned to their playful and affectionate demeanor immediately after each take. The man and dogs were never actually face to face. They were filmed in split-screen-style separate takes and edited together later. To get the dogs to run to the end of their chains, a trainer held one end of the dogs’ chains (allowing the trainer to avoid too much tension in the chains) and cued the dogs to run and pull forward toward another trainer.