Animal rights campaigners People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) have called for a boycott of a new film about a real-life attempt to save animals from Belfast Zoo during the second world war.
The film-makers had announced in 2016 that after a worldwide search they had recruited a three-year-old elephant called Nellie, a resident of African Lion Safari in Hamilton, Canada.
Peta’s UK branch has criticised the decision to use a live elephant.
At that time, Zoo producer John Leslie said: “There was a whole debate over whether or not we should use computer-generated imagery to put an elephant on the screen, but we all felt if we could work with a real animal we should.”