WARNING: NSFW
Cape Town – The HBO comedy series, Silicon Valley has landed in hot water with PETA over a sex scene with horses.
In a recent episode aired in the US two thoroughbred horses were seen mating on screen.
According to The Hollywood Reporter the American Humane Association was onset to oversee filming of the scenes and gave it a "No Animals Were Harmed" certificate.
But animal rights group PETA has called the scene an "arranged rape."
In a statement to The Wrap PETA Senior Vice President, Lisa Lange said: "It might be fun but the mares are tethered during the process, often with head ropes, with no means of escape, and the stallions are put on a lead rope and dragged to the mares to be mounted: neither the stallions or mares have any choice, it’s assembly line breeding for profit."
She continues: "There’s an overpopulation crisis in racing as most horses will not win races, and many are therefore discarded and sent on hideous journeys by truck in all weather to Mexico or Canada to be turned into meat."
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly producer Mike Judge said that a vet, and two employees who worked on the breeding farm where the scene was shot was on hand to oversee that the process went smoothly and that animals were not harmed during filming.
(Photo: HBO)