Gideon Raff. Photo: Screenshot.

As the highly anticipated second season finale of “Homeland” aired this weekend on Showtime, creator of the original Israeli version of the show Gideon Raff was focused on a different agenda. Virginia based American animal rights organization PETA released an official video of Raff speaking against animal cruelty.

The PETA viral video comes days after Raff issued an open letter to the British Ministry of Defense, protesting the use of live pigs in battlefield doctors training in the UK. He advised them to follow in the Israel Defense Forces’ footsteps, who had already concluded that it was far better to work with injury simulators than live helpless animals.

In the video, 39 year old Raff recounts his Israeli army service as a paratrooper and affirms his belief that it is wrong to use animals for military training purposes. He goes on to acknowledge incorporating pro animal rights derived story-lines into his artistic work, albeit he admits he cannot take credit for Claire Danes’ character Carrie Matheson stating she does not eat meat on an episode of “Homeland”.

The Emmy award winning “Homeland” finished its second season amidst significant backlash from television critics, who felt the narrative lost its way half way through with preposterous plot developments that accelerated the show’s core story and made it implausible. However, “Homeland” and its three big names – Danes, Damian Lewis and Mandy Patinkin – were all nominated last week respectively for the upcoming 70th annual Golden Globes. Danes and the show itself both won awards last year.

Raff is finishing 2012 splendidly. Last week he and fellow “Homeland” executive producer Howard Gordon sold a new TV drama pilot to the FX network, called “Tyrant.” The plot revolves around an unassuming American family drawn into the workings of a turbulent Middle Eastern nation. If “Tyrant” is indeed ordered to series, former “Six Feet Under” and “Lost” writer Craig Wright would be show-runner. Shooting of the pilot is tentatively scheduled for spring.

Raff’s PETA video can be viewed below.