[weegee]

Nonetheless, he was charged and fined with animal cruelty. His claim at the time was that the native extras used the animals for food.

Killing an animal on camera isn't "abuse". SLOWLY killing an animal on film is. Eating the animal afterwards does nothing to minimize the torture the animal endures before death.

John Waters killed 13 chickens in Pink Flamingos (chickens that were shoved between a couple having sex). The chickens' heads were cut off with a knife. This was much more exploitive than the decapitations that lead off Waters' Mondo Trasho but even those could have been performed more humanely by putting the chickens on a choping block before the cutting began.

[Long Cut]

I fully agree; there is never an excuse for wanton cruelty. In the films, those effects could easily have been faked.

I did not mean to give the impression that I support such brutal acts; I was only reporting the events as I understood them.

Ruggero Deodato will have much to answer for in the next life, of that I am certain. I observe these things only out of a keen interest in film history, and this is a part...a sad, vicious one, but still a part.