Actor John C Reilly has reportedly quit Lars Von Trier's Manderlay in protest over the killing of a donkey. Entertainment Weekly reports that the Chicago star walked off the film's set in Trollhatten, Sweden last month. He has since been replaced by Slovenian actor Zelijko Ivanek.

According to the swirl of rumours emanating from the shoot, 38 year-old Reilly was outraged over a scene that involved the slaughter of a donkey for food. But executive producer Peter Aalbaek Jensen insists that the donkey was old and sick and that the killing was entirely humane.

Speaking from the Zentropa production office in Denmark, Aalbaek told the Ritzau news bureau: "As it was explained to me from Sweden, everything went by the book and the entire process was monitored by a veterinarian. We were very conscientious about that, because we didn't want 70,000 American animal rights groups on our back." That said, he added wryly, "We could probably kill six children for a film without anyone raising a fuss." As yet, there are no reports of children being murdered on the set of Manderlay.

Reilly's exit marks the second major loss to the cast of Von Trier's film. Nicole Kidman was originally committed to star in the movie, following up her turn in the director's previous film Dogville, but bailed out of the project last summer. A tale of racism in the segregated south, Manderlay is the second part in Von Trier's controversial trilogy of films about America.