Animals used in film and television production face unique welfare challenges. Regulatory frameworks like the American Humane Association certification are designed to protect them but have significant limitations.
Film and television production creates unique welfare challenges: unfamiliar environments, intense lighting and sound, prolonged holding, multiple takes causing repeated stress exposure, and transport to often-distant filming locations. High-profile welfare failures including horse deaths on sets have drawn public attention. American Humane Association monitoring has been criticised as insufficiently independent and reactive rather than preventive. Exotic and wild animal casting for films drives demand that can be met through supply chains with very poor welfare credentials. The growth of CGI alternatives is reducing incentives to use live animals in dangerous scenarios, which represents genuine welfare progress.