PETA slams HBO for using abused elephants on Westworld

Deadline

Six years after the animal rights group successfully fought HBO's horse racing drama Luck, PETA is coming down hard against the pay cable network after it used real elephants on Sunday's episode. In an open letter sent to HBO's Casey Bloys, PETA pointed to footage of one of the elephants from last night's episode being abused, saying in a statement: "HBO’s Westworld—a show that presents riveted viewers with the rape and murder fantasies of rich patrons in a romanticized version of white colonization—couldn’t contain the violence to fictitious humans and robots. The cruelty spilt over into the real world when the show’s creators used a live and notoriously abused elephant in a recent episode. Now, PETA is calling on the network to do away with all animal exploitation." PETA has  previously come down on HBO for its use of lions, tigers and bears on Silicon Valley, Vice Principals, and The Leftovers. Lauren Thomasson, PETA's manager of animals in film and television, added: “Considering the realistic and cruelty-free CGI technology that exists today, all wild animals in HBO series should be computer-generated.” HBO has yet to respond to PETA's letter.