Certified Animal Safety Representative, American Humane Film & TV Unit

Job: Certified Animal Safety Representative, American Humane Film & TV Unit

Did you know the nonprofit charity American Humane sends a Certified Animal Safety Representative to every Screen Actors Guild (SAG) television, commercial, or film production using animals? Only about 40 people in the world hold this unique job, and we got to talk with one of them.

What do you say when people ask what you do for a living?
[Laughs.] My best, quickest explanation is to mention the 'No Animals Were Harmed...' credit at the end of a movie... that's what we do. We're actually physically there on set to protect the animals and find an easier, less stressful way [to do a scene with an animal], and to make sure everything goes smoothly. We take a ridiculous amount of notes. We're paid to worry.

How long have you been a Certified Animal Safety Rep?
About four years.

What's your typical workday like?
I generally know where I'm going at 10:30 or 11 p.m. the night before. Then I will travel to the set, whether it be commercial, TV show or movie. Usually we know what animals they're filming and generally how, but sometimes, we go in a little bit blind.


What kind of hours do you work?
We work weekends and overnight. For "The Chronicles of Narnia," I knew I was going to New Zealand, but I didn't know when. Sure enough, I got the call and had to fly out the next day. I was gone for about five weeks.

What do you do on a movie set?
We meet with the trainers, see what the animal action is going to be and talk to production. We'll analyze an animal scene ahead of time to see if there's anything that looks potentially dangerous or stressful. If it does, then we will discuss with the trainers and production to see if there might a different way of getting what they're trying to achieve. Maybe the action can be broken down or done in a different location.

What do you mean by the action getting "broken down"?
Sometimes they want to film the animals doing a lot of convoluted actions, like a dog getting out of a car, running down the street, saying "hi "to a person, going into a house and doing a sit. That's a lot to ask all at once. So we'll ask if they can do it in different shots.

For example in "Marley & Me," there were 22 different Marleys. In the puppy scenes, there were lots of Marley puppies. But since they get tired easily, we only allow puppies to be on set for a very limited amount of time. We also insist on our guidelines that they be of a specific age, that they have all their shots, that their health is okay. There are so many things that we will look at when we show up.

What kind of professional or educational experience do you need to be a Certified Animal Safety Rep?
A lot of the safety reps are animal behaviorists or equine specialists. They have PhD's and are highly trained. Some are animal humane officers and carry a badge. All are trained in exotics.

What was it like working on "The Chronicles of Narnia" in New Zealand?
There were a lot of horses and chase scenes. We filmed during the day, but when the movie came out, I saw that they had darkened it down on film to look like night. We did quite a bit in the river with river crossings, which is stressful.

What's stressful about rivers?
The temperature of the water. If it's glacial, it can drop the core temperature of both the horse and rider. We look at how deep the water is, and if the horses can touch the bottom of the river with their hooves. The path needs to be cleared of big boulders. I also count how many times they go across the river. Sometimes production forgets that if the camera isn't rolling, it still counts.

What kinds of animals have you worked with in the past year?
Cockroaches, goats, horses, the Budweiser Clydesdale horses, a leopard, a lion, a very funny set of parrots... I can't remember them all. Lobsters, rats. We will cover everything from maggots to elephants. You name it, we've covered it.

What movies have you worked on?
"Indiana Jones," "Benjamin Button---"

Did you see Brad Pitt?
I did, briefly.

Do you ever get starstruck at work?
Not really. I always joke around that I'm horrible because I'm always looking at the animals and I never notice who's around.

What else have you worked on?
"Prince of Persia" with Jake Gyllenhaal, which is coming out in 2010 or 2011. I can't say too much because the movie hasn't been released yet and we've got confidentiality agreements that we've signed. I can say there were some beautiful Irish wolfhounds who were huge. Also a variety of parrots, horses, camels, donkeys, and snakes.

Wow! What's the most challenging aspect of your job?
I'm always saying, "You have one more take. Or two more takes." And production is infamous for saying, "Just one more. Oh, that was great, that was fantastic. Let's do it again!" That's what we run into the most and it makes us crazy. We're there to remind [production] that the animals don't necessarily go by our schedules.

What's the best part of your job?
The animals. They always make you laugh. No matter how bad a day you're having, or how much somebody's yelling at you, or the trainers who don't want you there, the animals -- guaranteed -- will do something that will make you smile.

Tags: american-humane, animals, iworkwithanimals