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HBO and ‘Luck’ Producer Sued by Former AHA Employee Over Alleged Horse Abuse
HBO canceled its troubled horse-racing
series Luck amid PETA's protests over horse deaths on the set, and the bad luck
continues for the show's creators. Now HBO and the show's producer, Stewart
Productions, have been hit
with a lawsuit charging that they willfully allowed horses to be abused and attempted to cover
it up. Casey
is also suing the AHA for wrongful termination on the grounds that her desire
to report the criminal activity led to her dismissal.
The
plaintiff in the suit is Barbara Casey, who worked for the American Humane
Association (AHA) and was assigned to monitor animal welfare on the set of Luck. In her claim Casey asserts that HBO and Stewart Productions pressured the AHA to allow them to ignore
animal safety standards in order to save time and money. Casey alleges that she
balked at the idea but that her superiors sided with the show and ignored her
desire to report abuse to law enforcement. Casey's claim also alleges that
underweight and sick horses were routinely forced to work, that horses were
often drugged, and that producers went so far as to misidentify horses so that
animal safety representatives wouldn't be able to track down their accurate
medical histories.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Casey's lawsuit
argues that “AHA bowed to political and
financial pressure and refused to report the Production Defendants' conduct to
the authorities. … AHA instructed Plaintiff not to report such conduct. AHA
engaged in efforts to conceal and cover up the production defendants' criminal activities.”
The
law-enforcement investigation that PETA pushed for is still ongoing as well and
could result in cruelty-to-animals charges.
2013-01-03 16:15:20
Source:
