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‘The Walking Dead’ — Shiva The Tiger Will Be Completely CGI, PETA Honors Series With Award

By Dee Sharp
Published on: 13:42 PST, Jul 27, 2016

An article by The Slanted said that PETA has given kudos to The Walking Dead for not using a real live tiger as Shiva in Season 7. The Walking Dead released the trailer for Season 7 at Comic-Con in San Diego last Friday, and fans were given a peek at Shiva the Tiger, who is the zombie-eating sidekick of Ezekiel, leader of The Kingdom, as written in the comic book series. TWD decided to use animatronics and CGI instead of a real tiger. TWD creator Robert Kirkman said that the tiger portraying Shiva in the trailer was completely computer-generated imagery.

“There’s no real tiger at all, it’s all magic.”

PETA has long advocated animal rights and has criticized film-makers and TV shows for using real animals in scenes. PETA has brought up claims of animals being abused behind the scenes and has campaigned against animals being used. The animal-loving organization recognized The Walking Dead’s efforts to minimize animal abuse by creating a CGI Shiva the Tiger for Season 7. On the PETA website, the organization called attention to the show’s innovative way to add a tiger like Shiva to the series without any harm to a real live tiger. The organization features a PETA Innovation In Television Award which is dedicated to TWD. The award on their website shows a picture of a tiger, along with their gratitude to TWD.

“PETA recognizes and thanks The Walking Dead for making the compassionate decision to use cutting edge, cruelty-free computer-generated technology and animatronics to create a stunningly realistic Shiva the tiger.”

While applauding TWD, PETA would like to see other television networks stop exploiting animals, such as CBS, specifically the series, Zoo. The series has used real-life big cats, wolves, baboons, and even a polar bear. Polar bears are a threatened species prone to intense psychological distress when forced to live in captivity, according to PETA. PETA charges that CBS also works with abusive animal-training companies and the network dropped Michael Hackenberger after PETA drew attention to CBS producers that he had been caught on camera whipping a tiger. PETA’s motto is “Animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, use for entertainment, or abuse in any other way.”

Disney is another company that has promised to not use large cats or other wild animals in making Disney films, such as was seen in the recent movie, The Jungle Book. All animals were CGI in that film as well. PETA’s Senior Vice President, Lisa Lange, said that they will urge other networks to do the same.

“By choosing the excitement of cutting-edge technology instead of captive animals, The Walking Dead has won the respect of everyone who objects to condemning wild animals to live chained and in cages as well as making them perform under the threat of a whip. PETA will press all television networks to follow AMC’s compassionate lead.”

The Walking Dead Season 7 trailer shown at Comic-Con also shows Ezekiel sitting in his “throne” with Shiva by his side. Shiva certainly looks realistic enough and will most likely be a very exciting addition to The Walking Dead cast. As fans of the comics know, Ezekiel and The Kingdom will join with Rick and his gang along with the rest of Alexandria and The Hilltop in order to defeat Negan. Some members of The Kingdom were shown in the Season 6 finale, they were the two guys in body armor that Rick and Morgan met at the barn, and they helped Morgan and Carol at the end of the finale.

What are your thoughts on TWD’s decision to use CGI and not use a real tiger on the show? Please share your thoughts below.

[Image Via AMC/Youtube]

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