AWINZ  AWINZ monitored the treatment of animals in the making of Lord of the Rings in New Zealand. Special Thanks from TheOneRing.net  more

Read the letters from the American Humane association ( AHA)

Investigation into Controversial Allegations
AHA endeavors to meet the public’s demand for AHA to know and/or to investigate the use of animals in all filmed media. Since AHA is internationally known for its oversight of animals in filmed media, both the public and other animal welfare organizations contacted AHA near the end of filming when questions regarding the treatment of the animal actors remained unanswered. AHA compiled a list of concerns and requested and received an investigative report from the Animal Welfare Institute of New Zealand (AWINZ) and the New Zealand Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF). Although the investigative report was helpful, in that it concluded there was no intentional animal cruelty, it contained information that was inconsistent with standards set forth in AHA’s Guidelines.

Questions and Concerns
There are a few areas in which questions remain about the level of care the animals received. In addition, some training techniques reportedly used during production are opposed by AHA.  more
 

Stampede at Mt. Potts – While shooting at the Mt. Potts location a stampede occurred during the onset of a snowstorm. Neither Production nor AWINZ documented the incident at the time it occurred, nor formally evaluated whether adequate safety precautions were in place. Allegedly, one of the horses kicked through a fence, approximately 15-35 horses got loose and ran onto the road through an opened gate and across several cattle guards. It is unclear as to what caused the horses to spook and run an unusually long distance. Although the horses were retrieved by the following day, many of the horses sustained minor injuries and 4-5 horses sustained serious injuries. Reports indicate that one horse that sustained a serious injury was later euthanized. Since this incident was unanticipated and it was not formally documented and evaluated, it is unclear as to whether proper safety precautions and adequate fencing were in place that would have prevented the incident.

Horse Killers

There were over forty Clydesdales,
held by a piece of string.
No one saw the blizzard comin',
that happened that early spring.
Reports of how it started
are few and far between,
but things got pretty crazy, mate,
it must have been an awful scene!

A couple may have started fighting,
and that was all she wrote;
on that station down near Geraldine,
that day somebody got my goat.

They thundered ‘round in a mighty swarm
of flesh and electric fence,
before smashing down a ten inch post,
the barbed wire was no defense;

then over several cattle stops,
the stampede had begun;
down the road towards Geraldine,
did those mighty horses run!
Horse killers, and big box thrillers,
don't they just go hand in hand!
Spin doctors, and their helicopters,
don't they make it all look so grand!

But, dead ponies and media cronies,
did nobody see the blood?
I shouted out loudly, but I can stand proudly,
there’s a story buried deep in the mud.

Those horses kept on running,
till they had had enough.
Some went lame, and what a cryin’ shame,
two went off the bluff.

The company started moving,
in all directions, or so I’m told.
Some headed off towards Geraldine,
others towards damage control.
"Don’t ever let this story out,"
that's what they told the worried crew.
"The potential repercussions...
if the world finds out, we’re screwed!"

But those renegade cabayos,
got collected in due time;
and of the twenty odd that escaped that terrible day,
thank God, none of them was mine.

My boys had gone to higher ground
to escape from all the fuss;
others weren’t so lucky,
you could hear those cowboys cuss.

The horse killers showed no sympathy,
they preferred to pass the buck;
besides they had a pile of cash,
just in case things came unstuck.
Word is they shelled out twenty grand,
to some girl who’d lost her pet.
All in all it was a very busy day,
for the accountant and the vet.

For me, it was a lifetime,
of waiting just to see
Just how the Mt. Potts studio
would handle this tradgedy.
There were no words of sorrow,
no expressions of regret;
just a tricky situation,
that the world would soon forget.