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Marley & Gina & Me

American Humane protects animal actors during TV and movie production

By Amy Abern

"No animals were harmed during the filming of this movie" is one of the last lines you'll read as the credits roll by at the end of the recently released Marley & Me. And what a relief, considering the challenges presented to the various Marleys (18 yellow Labs in all) during movie production.

Some tricks came naturally for the dogs, like running around on the beach, playing with toys and licking their human counterparts on command. Others required high levels of skill, like falling down stairs, crashing into walls, faking diarrhea attacks and projecting the image of pain.

And not one of the Marleys suffered any pain or undue stress during any part of the movie production, thanks to American Humane, a nonprofit organization that for the past 131 years has been dedicated to ensuring the safety and well-being of animals and children. Long before the first movie was ever made, American Humane served as the voice for the voiceless, cracking down on cruelty and abuse against children and animals. As technology gave birth to the film industry, American Humane made sure as often as possible to have one of its representatives on set. Today, under the Screen Actors Guild contract, it is standard policy to have an animal safety representative on set for all movies, commercials and TV shows filmed in the U.S.

That's a fairly tall order to fill, considering there are fewer than 40 certified American Humane animal safety representatives to work on more than 1,000 film and TV productions annually. Gina Johnson was the safety representative on the set of Marley & Me. "The dogs were well taken care of and all their trainers were wonderful," she says. "Everything went incredibly smoothly, and, believe me, that's not always how things go on the set."

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