According to the Associated Press, director Lars Von Trier has excised a scene from his upcoming movie Manderlay due to protests from certain animal rights groups. In the scene a donkey is slaughtered for food.

Von Trier said he took out the scene not because he thought it was cruel but because he felt that if he left it in the film, the controversy it might cause would end up effecting the films overall message. It had been reported that actor John C. Reilly supposedly left the film because of this scene.

Manderlay is a story of slavery set in the 1930s American South”. It stars Bryce Dallas Howard, Willem Dafoe and Danny Glover.

The film should be released sometime in 2005.