Mumbai, 14th July 2023 (GNI): After receiving videos and a photograph taken on a Sobo Films set showing two horses hitched to a carriage running at high speed and crashing into a boom barrier at Film City in Mumbai, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India filed a formal complaint with the Aarey Police Station against the production house involved and the owner(s) of the horses. In the videos, reportedly recorded during a shoot of the serial Ek Mahanayak: Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the horses tumble and fall. At least one reportedly sustained a fracture. PETA India has also sent a formal complaint regarding the incident to the Animal Welfare Board of India – the prescribed authority under The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, to regulate the use of animals in films – requesting urgent action.
The video and photo evidence can be viewed here: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/fpxt8la5fudugmlm6dil4/h?rlkey=yvmofb7u6pvi55k0egvr2a1xf&dl=0
In addition, PETA India has sent a formal complaint to Dr Avinash Dhakane, IAS, the managing director of Maharashtra Film, Stage & Cultural Development Corporation Limited, a government body which manages Film City, requesting that he assist the police with CCTV footage and other evidence to ensure the offenders are held accountable for violating laws and to aid the police investigation into the matter.
In September 2021, PETA India worked with Abdullapurmet police after a similar horrific incident, in which a horse was involved in a head-on collision and died during the shooting of the film Ponniyin Selvan. PETA India got a first information report registered against the management of the production company, Madras Talkies, and the owner of the horse.
“In the age of computer-generated imagery (CGI), production companies have no excuse for forcing exhausted horses to perform until one of them breaks a bone or drops dead,” says PETA India Cruelty Response Coordinator Saloni Sakaria. “Compassionate, forward-thinking film and TV producers would never dream of hauling sensitive animals to a chaotic set and forcing them to ‘act’. PETA India is calling on all film and show makers to cut the cruelty and switch to modern, humane CGI and other visual-effects technology.”
Animals used in the entertainment industry are typically separated from their mothers as infants, beaten or starved during training, forced to perform confusing or dangerous tricks, chained or kept in intense confinement when not being used, and subjected to the chaos of film and television studios.
PETA India – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information about PETA India, please visit PETAIndia.com or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.ends GNI
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