Animals in Film and Television

People have always had a fascination for large, exotic types of animals and as a result many zoos were set up all over Europe and North America. For many years there was a great deal of money to be made from exhibiting animals, and very little regard was paid to their welfare. With the advent of cinema and television we have come to appreciate these animals in their own environment. Some modern zoos have attempted, therefore, to reproduce a type of natural surrounding for the larger species of animal, but the compromise between providing an animal with its natural environment and still allowing it to be seen by the public is not easy to attain, and there has always been a tendency to err on the side of the public. This tendency to favor the viewing public rather than the animals has resulted in concern about the way in which animals are exploited for films and television. These are modern problems, and they come under two distinct headings