Editing Zoo (2007 film) (section)

== Production ==
On their reasoning for wanting to make a documentary about the [[Enumclaw horse sex case|Enumclaw case]], Robinson Devor and Charles Mudede said when the news story first broke in 2005, it quickly became a punch line in the media. Said Mudede, "There seemed to be two responses: repulsion or laughter. People didn’t want to have any connection or identification with these men. Early on Rob and I said to each other, 'We’re going to revive their humanity.'"<ref name="NYT" />

Mudede noted, "It was only after Pinyan died when law enforcement looked for one way to punish his associates, that the legality of bestiality in Washington State became an issue [...] The prosecutor's office wanted to charge Tait with animal abuse, but the police found no evidence of abused animals on the many videotapes they collected from his home…the prosecutors could only charge Tait with trespassing."<ref name=":0" />

Mudede, a journalist at ''The Stranger'', had written an article about the incident and was contacted by one of the participants in the case.<ref name="NYT">{{Cite news|last=Lim|first=Dennis|date=2007-04-01|title=A Lyrical Approach to a Subject That Shocks|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/movies/01lim.html|access-date=2022-12-07|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Of the participants, called "zoos", Mudede said "there was a desperate need to talk" and to tell their side of the story.<ref name="NYT" /> Coyote, the only zoo that appears in the film, said he came to trust Devor to tell their story, saying "I felt in my gut he was not going to make an exploitive type of movie."<ref name="NYT" /> When ''Zoo''’s selection for the 2007 Sundance Film Festival was announced in December 2006, H, the farmhand who was the host of the men’s get-togethers, contacted Devor and consented to an audio interview, which Devor edited into the film.<ref name="NYT" />

Devor said the film’s biggest challenge was finding locations to shoot, as horse farms in the Seattle area did not want to be associated with the documentary. Said Devor, "Owners would say things like: 'We have Microsoft picnics here. They’re going to think it happened in my barn.'"<ref name="NYT" /> The production ended up filming in Canada.<ref name="NYT" />

The film was originally titled ''In the Forest There Is Every Kind of Bird'',<ref name="movie">{{cite news|last=Macdonald|first=Moira|date=July 3, 2006|title=Infamous Enumclaw horse sex case to be made into movie|newspaper=The Seattle Times|url=http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/artsentertainment/2003097374_horse03.html|url-status=dead|access-date=2006-07-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060705214557/http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/artsentertainment/2003097374_horse03.html|archive-date=July 5, 2006}}</ref> but this was changed to ''Zoo'' in a reference to zoophilia.

Two brief clips of bestiality is shown in the film, although only one features audio. The first clip features Kenneth Pinyan receiving rear-entry position anal sex from a male horse. Another featured an unidentified man receiving rear-entry position anal sex from a male horse in a barn. Out of sync audio of the first clip is played over both in a loop. The audio is the moans, grunts and gasps of Kenneth, the lubricant sounds of the sex, the ejaculation and two unidentified men making brief comments, with one engaging in erotic talk. In the DVD audio commentary for the film, according to Devor and other zoos, Devor states that sex clip of Kenneth happened five years prior and was not the video that captured Kenneth sustaining fatal injuries.<ref>{{cite web |last=Devor |first=Robinson |title=Exclusive Interview: Robinson Devor |url=https://chud.com/10022/exclusive-interview-robinson-devor-zoo/ |website=CHUD.com |access-date=26 September 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Zoo |url=https://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Coyote/dp/B000Q66QFQ |website=Amazon |access-date=26 September 2024}}</ref>