PETA Wants Probe After Snake Reportedly Killed on ‘The Devil All the Time’ Set

Group Alerts Authorities Following Whistleblower Report From Set After Receiving No Response From Director

For Immediate Release:
March 28, 2019

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

A whistleblower has reported that a snake was deliberately killed on the set of the movie The Devil All the Time, which is currently being filmed in Oak Mountain State Park outside Birmingham—so PETA sent a letter calling on the Pelham Police Department to investigate the incident to see whether Alabama’s Cruelty to Animals Law was violated because of the extreme suffering that would have been caused by decapitation. PETA has also notified Alabama’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, as the snake was reportedly killed within a state park.

According to the whistleblower—who contacted PETA’s Animals in Film and Television Division whistleblower hotline—there was no snake wrangler on location and the animal posed no threat to the cast or crew before being decapitated. Decapitation is an extremely cruel method of killing snakes because due to their unique physiology, a snake can remain sensible to pain for up to one hour after their head is severed from the body. Earlier this week, PETA sent a letter to director Antonio Campos asking for more information about the incident, but the group has received no answer.

“We were told that this snake was simply in his or her natural habitat—under a rock, doing what snakes do—when someone reportedly came along, moved the rock, and killed the wild animal just for being there,” says PETA Senior Vice President Lisa Lange. “PETA is asking anyone with more information about this incident to contact our whistleblower hotline.”

The Devil All the Time stars Robert Pattinson, Tom Holland, and Sebastian Stan and is scheduled to be released next year. PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—opposes speciesism, which is the human-supremacist worldview that other animals are disposable.

PETA urges anyone who witnesses cruelty to animals in the entertainment industry to report it by calling the group’s confidential whistleblower hotline at 323-210-2233 or by sending an e-mail to [email protected]. Whistleblowers’ anonymity will be protected.  

For more information, please visit PETA.org.