Serving animals in HOBBIT film

[William Cloud Hicklin]

And besides..... making a buck ... is that not the decision JRRT himself made when he sold the film rights?

Perforce. Tolkien found himself in a potentially catastrophic situation in 1968-9: nominally wealthy enough to fall into the top tax bracket (96%), he didn't actually have the cash to pay his monstrous bill from the Inland Revenue. He had to raise some dosh immediately, and UA was interested in providing it.

Having sold out, however, Tolkien was entirely satisfied that (at least during his lifetime) the movies would never be made, which was thoroughly to his liking.

Please don't make the error of confusing Tolkien's "cash or kudos" attitude during the negotiations with Ackerman in the Fifties with what transpired with UA a decade later (an episode on which the published Letters are entirely silent). While in 1958 he was certainly not averse to income, having a meagre retirement looming, he was nonetheless able to walk away when neither Art nor Cash were on offer. In 1968, although indubitably richer, he was also desperate, and in no position to hold out.