At The Humane Society of the United States, our mission statement is "Celebrating Animals, Confronting Cruelty," but a corollary principle is celebrating people who do remarkable things for animals. The Genesis Awards is built around that idea, specifically by recognizing people in the media and entertainment industry who incorporate animal protection themes in their reporting and creative works.
At the event Saturday night in Beverly Hills, Teri Hatcher, Keely and Pierce Brosnan, Jon Lovitz, Kristen Bell, and about 20 other presenters handed out awards to winners in 19 categories. The winners are listed below, and among them were "The Cove" for documentary film, "Bones" in dramatic series, "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" for talk show, and "Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell" for TV newsmagazine.
I was also so pleased to provide our Lifetime Achievement Award to my friend Tippi Hedren. Tippi has devoted so much of her adult life to the cause of animal protection, and together we worked very hard to pass the Captive Wildlife Safety Act in 2003. That legislation banned the interstate transport of big cats for the pet trade, and Tippi's life work to rescue big cats from these situations provided plenty of evidence of the ill effects of this trade on big cats and often on the people who handle them. Tippi's daughter, Melanie Griffith, provided the introduction, and her son-in-law, Antonio Banderas, was on hand for the ceremony, too.
If you are on Facebook, keep an eye on The HSUS's fan page, where we'll soon be posting some behind the scenes video and photos with stars and award winners. You can also follow us on Twitter to get frequent updates from HSUS events like the Genesis Awards.
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Tippi Hedren
FEATURE FILM
(tie) "Hotel for Dogs" - Dreamworks Pictures, Nickelodeon Movies
(tie) "Up" - Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar Animation Studios
DOCUMENTARY FILM
"The Cove" - Lionsgate, Roadside Attractions, Oceanic Preservation Society
SID CAESAR COMEDY AWARD
"Family Guy," Dog Gone - FOX TV Animation, Fuzzy Door Productions, 20th Century FOX
DRAMATIC SERIES
"Bones," The Tough Man in the Tender Chicken - FOX
CHILDREN'S PROGRAMMING
"Nick News with Linda Ellerbee," Kids to the Rescue! Helping Homeless Animals - NickelodeonTV
NEWSMAGAZINE
"Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell," multiple segments - HLN
NEWS FEATURE
KCBS/KCAL TV (Los Angeles), Animal Shelter Abuse, Faux Fur Investigation
NEWS SERIES
KLAS-TV 8 (Las Vegas), I-Team: Shark Fin Soup
MORNING NEWS SHOW
"Today," multiple segments by Jill Rappaport - NBC
TALK SHOW
"The Ellen Degeneres Show," "Eating Animals" author Jonathan Safran Foer - Syndicated
TV DOCUMENTARY
"Death on a Factory Farm" - HBO
REALITY SERIES
"Whale Wars," The Stuff of Nightmares - Animal Planet
TV FILM
"A Dog Named Christmas" - CBS
BRIGITTE BARDOT INTERNATIONAL
"Bear Sanctuary" - Animal Planet Europe
SERIES OF NEWSPAPER ARTICLES
Isthmus (Wisconsin), multiple articles by Bill Lueders
NEWSMAGAZINE
TIME, The New Age of Extinction and The Real Cost of Cheap Food by Bryan Walsh, and Abused No More by David Von Drehle
MAGAZINE
O, The Oprah Magazine, What Are They Thinking? by Eugene Linden, Wild Things by Rick Bass, and Operation Rescue by Barry Yeoman
BRIGITTE BARDOT INTERNATIONAL PRINT
The Independent (UK), multiple articles by Martin Hickman
This post originally appeared on Pacelle's blog, A Humane Nation.
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