Protestors for PETA disrupted Thursday night’s premiere of “Twisters” in Los Angeles, calling out a “distressing scene” in the film as an “inhumane” glorification of rodeos and for the use of live animals in the film.
The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) organization protested the LA premiere of the film at the Regency Village Theatre over the “distressing scenes” involving rodeo animals. Protestors wearing cow masks and carrying signs reading “Calves’ Necks Are Twisted at Rodeos” and “The Rodeo Hurts and Kills Animals” were positioned outside the theater.
But one protestor also found her way inside the screening and jumped in front of the audience while director Lee Isaac Chung was introducing the film’s cast, including Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, and Anthony Ramos, who were all in attendance.
IndieWire was present at the premiere, where the woman could be heard shouting “There’s no excuse for animal abuse.” She was quickly tackled by security, then escorted out. The audience could be heard booing and jeering for her to leave, and Chung briefly tried to calm the audience down and have them not boo the protestor.
In a statement prior to the premiere, PETA urged studios Universal and Warner Bros. to add a disclaimer to the movie’s credits “about the real-life cruelty inherent in the events — in which cows (including calves), horses, and other animals are tormented, maimed, and often killed — and to discourage audiences from attending them.”
Lauren Thomasson, PETA’s Director of Animals in Film and Television, told IndieWire that the protest was a “last resort” to influence Universal Pictures.
“The protest and disruption of the ‘Twisters’ premiere was a last resort after Universal Pictures’ leadership as well as the film’s executive producer and director ignored PETA’s simple request: that the movie include a disclaimer alerting audiences that animals are tormented, maimed, and killed in rodeos and discouraging people from attending them,” Thomasson said. “PETA urges filmgoers and compassionate people everywhere not to be sucked in by ‘Twisters’’ glamorization of animal abuse and to stay far away from rodeos.”
As PETA shared with IndieWire, the federal Animal Welfare Act offers no protection to animals used in rodeos, which have been denounced by every reputable animal protection group, and certain states exclude them from anti-cruelty statutes. Rodeo participants have been videotaped choking calves and twisting their necks while slamming them onto the ground, injecting bulls with steroids to induce an aggressive response to harassment, using sharp spurs to make horses buck, and zapping horses and cows with electric “hotshots” so that the animals will charge in a state of panic out of a chute.
“Twisters” centers on two tornado chasers, played by Powell and Edgar-Jones. The feature is a sequel to the 1996 film “Twister.”
PETA has previously publicly panned films such as “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” “Alpha,” “Jackass Forever,” and TV series “The Gilded Age” over the treatment of animals on set.
“Twisters” opens in theaters on July 17.
