# "No Animal Was Harmed In The Making Of This Film..." **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 8, 2004, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-animal-was-harmed-in-the-making-of-this-film/273675 "2004-11-08T17:34:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2004, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-animal-was-harmed-in-the-making-of-this-film/273675/21 "2004-11-09T06:06:51Z")
> [@Eats\_Crayons](#): > > I’m not sure how far down the food chain it goes. The TV show _Fear Factor_ regularly has contestants eating worms and bugs alive. On the other hand , some movie that had huge bunches of cockroaches had a “roach wrangler”. So I dunno. _The Silence Of The Lambs_ had a credit for **Assistant Moth Wrangler** is that what you’re thinking of? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2004, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-animal-was-harmed-in-the-making-of-this-film/273675/22 "2004-11-09T07:49:45Z")
> [@](#): > > The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals monitored the filming of scenes involving Brooks’ crow. During the scene where he fed it a maggot, the ASPCA objected on the grounds that it was cruel to the maggot, and required that they use a maggot that had died from natural causes. One was found, and the scene was filmed. Isn’t “eaten by a crow” pretty high on the list of “natural causes” for a maggot? ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2004, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-animal-was-harmed-in-the-making-of-this-film/273675/23 "2004-11-09T07:55:44Z")
The cockroaches that got squished in Starship Troopers {Hello, lissener} looked pretty un-CGI to me. ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2004, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-animal-was-harmed-in-the-making-of-this-film/273675/24 "2004-11-09T08:37:13Z")
> [@Middlecase](#): > > The cockroaches that got squished in Starship Troopers {Hello, lissener} looked pretty un-CGI to me. They weren’t real cockroaches, they were the _perfect satire_ of real cockroaches! ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2004, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-animal-was-harmed-in-the-making-of-this-film/273675/25 "2004-11-09T10:36:33Z")
> [@bienville](#): > > They weren’t real cockroaches, they were the _perfect satire_ of real cockroaches! The making of on the DVD says they were ketchup packets. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2004, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-animal-was-harmed-in-the-making-of-this-film/273675/26 "2004-11-09T10:45:03Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > The making of on the DVD says they were ketchup packets. Obviously a satire on America’s fast-food culture, then. {Are you sure? Because I’m pretty sure they were scuttling in much the same way that ketchup packets don’t} ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2004, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-animal-was-harmed-in-the-making-of-this-film/273675/27 "2004-11-09T13:22:13Z")
> [@Peter Morris](#): > > _The Silence Of The Lambs_ had a credit for **Assistant Moth Wrangler** is that what you’re thinking of? No, no, not _Lambs_, not _M.I.B._ either… It was something filmed here (Toronto)… oh, two years ago, maybe. I didn’t know anyone on the shoot, that’s why I don’t remember the show. And it wasn’t a blockbuster (although I think it was a major motion picture and not a direct to video). IIRC, the scene required a lot of roaches, and they may have actually interviewd the “roach wrangler” for a weekly newspaper. I do remember that the crew ended up chasing an escapee, but when they did a headcount, there was one extra roach and the “escapee” was not actually a show bug, but a critter that had come out of the walls of the location. (_Everyone’s_ trying to get a cameo these days.) I’ll see if I can hunt up the film title. > [@Thudlow Boink](#): > > Now I’m picturing a rat stomping off to its trailer, muttering, “You’ll be hearing from my agent about these working conditions!” Actually, the rats were much easier for the cast and crew to get along with than the average human. Not a diva in the lot. And the rat union wasn’t nearly as uppity as IATSE – granted the picket signs would be a lot smaller. Although the Snarly Rat got replaced by CGI because he was too cute. Six were specially trained for one specific task each – e.g./ one was trained to “snarl”, one was trained to flip a switch, etc. But they all looked so Hammy Hamster cute when they did their trick that they got CGIed instead (and the CGI snarl is pee-your-pants funny – not supposed to be though). They were supposed to be eeeeeevil, mutant rats that were genetically engineered to be “smart” and now they were loose in the sewers on a rampage! Problem was, instead of nasty, filthy looking rats in the sewers, they were all very clean, and pudgy, and fuzzy, and instead of rampaging they would sit on their haunches and wash their little, wee noses. Awwwww. Oh, right. Rampage, rampage, rampage. ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2004, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-animal-was-harmed-in-the-making-of-this-film/273675/28 "2004-11-09T13:31:16Z")
> [@Middlecase](#): > > Obviously a satire on America’s fast-food culture, then. {Are you sure? Because I’m pretty sure they were scuttling in much the same way that ketchup packets don’t} They may have been fake. The rat movie above had several totally fake rats that they could get to “move”. They were rubbery and would “scurry” though they were fake. They were the “killable” critters. The stompable cockroaches were most likely fake because fake ones let you mash them more _spectacularly_ – you can fill them with much more splattery goo than what you would get IRL. Like, the rat movie had one that had to get electrocuted. Much more interesting to pack a fake one full of flammable stuff so he practically explodes and burns to a crisp from the current. A real rat would just go zap! and collapse. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/no-animal-was-harmed-in-the-making-of-this-film/273675.md?page=1)