SANTA FE, N.M. – The New Mexico film industry makes a positive impact both on and off the screen for New Mexico. Take the story of “Beauty”, a regal Turkey Vulture, under the care of New Mexico wildlife non-profit Hawks Aloft. The New Mexico production Cop Shop partnered with New Mexico wildlife non-profit Hawks Aloft to utilize Beauty in the production while agreeing to raise awareness for the vulture species.

Beauty recently made a guest appearance on the set of the contemporary action-thriller Cop Shop which filmed in Albuquerque, NM in late 2020. As part of the agreement to feature Beauty, Cop Shopagreed to bring attention to the value of the vulture species in the global environment and provide statement and a link to Hawks Aloft’s website in the film’s end credits. 

The agreement also included the time of Maggie Stein, an Educational Outreach Coordinator for Hawks Aloft, who served as Beauty’s handler on-set. 

"Hawks Aloft is pleased that the New Mexico production Cop Shop will feature Beauty, our educational Turkey Vulture. She visually represents the importance of scavengers in our world and the role they play in preventing disease. This often misunderstood family of birds is declining worldwide due to habitat loss, secondary poisonings and direct persecution," said Gail Garber, Director, Hawks Aloft. "The partnership with the production will help raise awareness of Hawks Aloft efforts to conserve indigenous wild birds through conservation education, avian research, raptor rescue and cooperation with others."

“It was quite an amazing experience having a living vulture on set. The beauty of this bird enhanced our film and precipitated the crew to shoot a bunch of selfies with the bird. It was also amazing to see how well the bird was trained and how skilled the trainers were. The experience was one of the more unique ones I have undergone,” said Warren Goz, Producer, Cop Shop.  

“Productions in New Mexico are making positive impacts in our state on and off the screen all the time, those impacts just often just go unrecognized. It's great to see a partnership like this one that raises awareness to an important cause such as animal conservation and research efforts,” said Amber Dodson, Director, New Mexico Film Office. “We can’t wait to see Beauty in her breakout role!”

The feature Cop Shop is directed by Joe Carnahan (The A-Team, Smokin’ Aces) and produced by Warren Goz (The Marksman) and Eric Gold (The Marksman).

More information on Hawks Aloft can be found online at http://hawksaloft.org