Animal-rescue show films here
By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Writer
"Animal Cops," a British-made TV series airing on the Animal Planet cable channel, will start filming a Hawai'i pilot today for possible expansion into a full-fledged series later this year.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
"They want to explore the humane investigators in Hawai'i," said Eve Holt, director of community relations at the Hawaiian Humane Society. Holt said the Honolulu organization is cooperating. "It's like a police show, only with animal rescues — a dog in a drainage ditch, a duckling separated from its mom, a cat trapped in a hollow wall, or an animal that's neglected or abused."
"Animal Cops" TV producer-director Paul Fitzgerald and associate producer Clare Bradshaw are in Honolulu for the filming of a pilot.
Produced by Granada Television, "Animal Cops" is filmed in two other American markets — Houston and Detroit — with a related third show, "Animal Precinct," shot in New York.
"Why Hawai'i? I guess because it's an exotic location," said Paul Fitzgerald, Granada's producer-director, here to oversee the pilot.
"The programs are hugely popular, and we're constantly searching for new locations where we might do the series. In a given season of 15 hours a year, we're seen by 20 million viewers by the time the repeats occur."
The show's appeal, he said, rests in the bonding between man and beast.
"We cover real stories, real lives, in real time," Fitzgerald said. "It's an observational documentary; we wait for things to happen and show up with our cameras."
Eve Holt
The program, Fitzgerald said, attempts to "capture the ultimate relationship between man and animal; essentially we deal with domestic animals placed by man in a situation of trust; when that trust is broken, we want to see a wrong righted, and that's where we have material for the show."
Essentially, the pilot — and the subsequent series, if one evolves — is "reality" to the max, because little is scripted and the show could have both drama and trauma, depending on what happens on a search-and-film mission.
Holt is eager to see the Honolulu show launched to a national audience. "The Hawaiian Humane Society is looked up to by the nation and many other humane organizations," she said. "We're known for the type of work we do.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
"We're mostly dealing with typical animals, like picking up strays or lost animals, but often there's a happy side. When you reunite the animal with its owner, there is a lot of happiness."
Paul Fitzgerald and Clare Bradshaw interview Eve Holt of the Hawaiian Humane Society. Filming will continue through Friday.
Humane Society investigators, she said, are deputized by the Honolulu Police Department locally and work with the Police Department and animal crime-stoppers.
Fitzgerald hopes to complete the Hawai'i pilot by March to shop it with the cable network.
"We see Hawai'i as a culturally diverse and interesting location," he said. "Even if you don't have exotic animals like snakes in Hawai'i, the same is true, for the most part, with New York and even Detroit."
Holt said the recurring "mystery cat" sightings on Maui would be great fodder for the show, though there are no immediate plans to focus on that animal.
Filming will continue through Friday, with sites depending on what emerges on the Hawaiian Humane Society's radar.
"We look at the show as potential exposure to educate the public about animal abuse and the role the community plays to protect the animals," Holt said.
There were 2,155 animal emergency rescues here last year on O'ahu, she said, and 1,417 animal cruelty investigations.
"The program would help us bring the message to the limelight, particularly to alert people about breeders. There are breeders and there are breeders," she said of the difference between legitimate and suspect sources.
Reach Wayne Harada at wharada@honoluluadvertiser.com, 525-8067 or fax 525-8055.
