Do those of you who support animal rights intend to boycott The Hobbit?

I do feel strongly about animal rights, but I also think that this is an infinitesimal blip on the radar of animal abuses and will spend my time focusing on factory farming and shelter euthnasia rates.

I am not nor ever have been a fan of “The Hobbit” series. So, my “boycott” is more of a boycott on not being a sci-fi/ fantasy fan in general.
I did find it incredibly disturbing, the allegations of cruelty and abuse that supposedly went on in the making of the classic, ” Milo & Otis.” THAT was very disturbing and I don’t think I can ever watch that film again knowing what I now know.
I do my best to make a difference in the life of any and all animals as I am able, and as opportunity presents, so if I am aware of cruelty in any form associated with a film, yes, I would boycott it.

@syz Sure, and I do agree with you. But I guess I feel like that wasn’t really an answer to the question I asked. Can I surmise that you might be saying that for you, the infinitesimality of this occurrence of animal cruelty means that seeing The Hobbit or not, based on this info, is an unimportant decision?

I think you hit on what I was really asking, so thank you for helping me clarify my thought on this – I am wondering about how fully people embrace their values and what they think of as a full embrace of a value, in particular their value of animal rights, and how they see their own divergence from a stated value.

It won’t stop me from watching the movie and taking my kids to see it.

Sure, let’s say that’s the reason I won’t be seeing it…

I love The Hobbit series BUT I love animals more. I’m willing to sacrifice a few hours of entertainment to prove a point. And I will be posting this on my fb and other social media’s as well. Thanks for letting me know.

Ugh, how disheartening. I shouldn’t even read that link. I was not going to see the movie to begin with but now I have a compelling reason should anyone try to drag me to it.

I think animals should be treated humanely, but I don’t think they can have rights. They can’t communicate and they can’t advocate for themselves. We can only imagine what they might want or be thinking.

I guess they probably don’t want to die, but if we didn’t have a use for them, they wouldn’t exist in the first place. Should I let the fact that the production didn’t spend a gazillion dollars to make sure no animals died on the farm make me want to not see the movie? No. I don’t care that much. I think animals should be treated humanely. I don’t think that means they should be free of accidents entirely.

@wundayatta Good answer, thanks. I will peruse your question under Related there on the right about whether animals can have rights in a few; I think this is a very interesting and complex topic.

I think you may have a misconception about one thing, though: the difficulty/cost involved to correct the problems cited in the article. It costs around $1500 to install an electric fence for chickens to keep dogs away, and it takes two people about half a day to a day. Maybe they had way more chickens than I did, but for around 50 birds, it’s really not that much money or work time. And all the other problems, seems to me, could have been addressed with no more money/time than was already put in – it’s just a matter of doing things properly rather than improperly. For example, a different farm could have been chosen, and non-contaminated feed could have been bought. Maybe they saved a little cash by cutting corners on location and feed…but isn’t cutting those corners precisely the sort of behavior that falls under the rubric of not treating animals humanely?

@wundayatta Animal life of all kinds pre-date human life by eons.
You “guess” they probably don’t want to die?! Ya think?

I think animals do have rights, BECAUSE they are only here due to human choice. We are thus responsible in my book, and of course we are failing miserably. It’s incredibly sad to me…don’t ever watch those animal cop shows, it’s horrendous what people do to animals.

I refused to watch the Sex & the City movies due to the mistreatment of that horse & those poor cougars, shame on you Hollywood.

@Coloma I can’t read animals’ minds. Yes, I think they don’t want to die. But although it may seem stupid and obvious to you, I still am unwilling to say I know what they want. There are animals that appear to be willing to die for humans. There are animals that just seem to want to die. I am unwilling to say I know what they want because I can’t talk to them.

So spare me the sarcasm. Or are you claiming to be able to read their minds, oh goose whisperer?

I agree with you that we are responsible, @KNOWITALL, but I don’t understand how that translates into them having rights. It seems to me that in order to have rights, you must be responsible for yourself or have the potential to be responsible for yourself. If you can never achieve that, then you can not have rights because rights are things we must fight for. If you can’t be responsible for yourself, you can’t advocate or fight for your rights.

It’s kind of like breeding dogs. If you breed them, knowing that millions are put to death across the world every day, then you have a responsiblity to make sure they all have good homes. Actually that’s not a good example because I can’t stand breeders, it’s all about profit….

Okay, my animals have the right to medical care, food, water and shelter, along with affection and mental stimulation. They have the right because I CHOSE to become a pet parent, or responsible owner, whichever.

A lot of people make that choice as well, but then abuse or neglect the animal, whether it be horses, cows, dogs or whatever, I think ownership is responsibility. And frankly, even if I had no animals of my own, I would still feel responsible for anything that touched my life because I feel empathy.

@wundayatta Every life form has a self preservation instinct. Animals that die for people are dying out of a sense of protectiveness perhaps, as maybe a dog that protects its owner, but the dog is not thinking ” I want to die for this person.” It is responding from protective instinct.
I agree that we can never know what, if anything, an animal thinks, but they surely do not want to die, the self preservation instinct is strong and there is no disputing that fact.

I’ll will see the film. Most of the ‘mistreatment’ seems to have been accidents that occurred in open countryside rather than deliberate cruelty or neglect. This sort of thing could happen to animals in the wild.

I agree with flutherother. Two accidents happened; conditions were immediately improved; PETA are drama queens. Definitely going to see the movie.

I care about the humane treatment of animals but I will see the film. It seems the accidents were a result of poor scoping of appropriate housing/agistment. I would think such issues will now be firmly on the radar in the making of other films. Furthermore, Wellington (an other parts of New Zealand) is a very hilly, rugged environment. I don’t know how easy it would be to find flat land. I wonder how many animals kept in that area have accidents just as part of living in that region.

What ^^ they said. And I’m still going to see it.

The animals tragic deaths were the cause of handlers who were poorly trained at caring for them. Since it was unintentional, and was not part of the filming, I will see this movie.

whew!

If it was 5–10, I may have overlooked it, but obviously something caused over 20 deaths and it wasn’t corrected appropriately, that to me is obvious and blatent neglect on someone’s part. Sorry, I’m out.

Wish it was Orcs who died in the making of this film instead of Rainbow and Doofus. Warner Bros., if it was really, really their fault should donate serious money to animal rights orgs. I’ll see the movie. It was certainly not Bilbo nor Gandalf’s fault.