The alleged abuse revolves around a German shepherd seemingly forced into rough watersYour browser does not support HTML5 video.
The center of this controversy is an exclusive video released by TMZ. In it, you can see a trainer trying to force a distressed German shepherd into a pool of rough water, as the dog tries to wriggle out of the trainer’s grasp. At one point, the dog is hanging on to the edge of the pool. Toward the end of the video, it appears to go underwater and it looks like people on the set panic a bit. All throughout, there’s running commentary from an unidentified person who’s watching the incident from offscreen, giving a play-by-play about how the dog wants to get away and will just have to be thrown in.
It’s hard to watch, as you can visibly see the dog in distress. The German shepherd clearly does not want to be in the water, and is not in a playful mood.
But what must also be made clear is that the video is edited.
“While we continue to review the circumstances shown in the edited footage, Amblin is confident that great care and concern was shown for the German Shepherd Hercules, as well as for all of the other dogs featured throughout the production of the film,” the company said in an official statement obtained by CNN.
According to Amblin Entertainment via a statement provided to CNN, the dog didn’t have to complete the scene after being forced in — where the first part of the video cuts off. TMZ says the company claims that the filming resumed when the dog was comfortable and it was not thrown into the water. “Hercules [the dog] ended up going under once filming resumed, but divers and handlers quickly rescued him,” the statement said.
About 10 seconds before the video ends, there’s a jump cut between the dog being distressed and the dog being in the water and going under. Since the video cuts where it does, it creates a narrative that the dog was distressed and thrown into the pool. But the video doesn’t actually confirm that. The dog could have, as the production company states, entered the water in a calmer state and then gone underwater. Though it’s clear the dog was distressed for at least some time, as seen in the video, we currently have no way of knowing how it actually ended up in the water.
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Directed by Lasse Hallstrom, the pic was produced by Polone and executive produced by Alan Blomquist.
But Polone is speaking up and loudly, angry that this happened on his film, given his animal activism.
The trailer for A Dog’s Purpose does, as Lange states, have a German Shepherd dog trying to swim through rushing water. The dog in the video posted by TMZ today is clearly scrambling to not go into the rushing water and tried to climb out after being pushed in. In a later shot, the dog goes under water and handlers start screaming to get to him.
PETA released a video expose of Hollywood animal supplier Birds & Animals Unlimited (BAU), which claimed to a PETA eyewitness they provided dogs used in the film A Dog’s Purpose, new footage shows a terrified dog who is forced into churning water on set. At one point, a dog who is in danger of drowning has to be rescued. PETA is calling on dog lovers to boycott the film in order to send the message that dogs and other animals should be treated humanely, not as movie props. PETA’s investigation at BAU revealed that animals are denied veterinary care, forced to sleep outdoors in the cold without bedding for warmth, made to live in filthy conditions, and more.
When the fog cleared from my brain, I knew I had to find out how this happened, who was responsible and what my part in all this may have been. Though I was in Los Angeles when the scene in question was shot, I was on the set of the film for about 70 percent of the 11-week production and witnessed the animal trainers, from a company called Birds and Animals Unlimited, handling the animals daily. Not once did I perceive any animal caused any discomfort or put in danger — and I am very aware what a distressed dog or cat is like. I live alone with a dog and two cats (and earlier in my life shared my home with as many as four dogs and five cats) and am very sensitive to their emotions. Seeing that distraught dog in the video did not comport with what I had observed in the prior weeks of production.
I also hold myself accountable because, even though I was not present, I knew and had written about how ineffective AHA has been over the years. Its monitors have been present when bad things have happened to animals on sets, not offering enough protection to stop those events and displaying no real protest after they occurred. Though AHA is the standard guarantor of animal safety on all studio productions and I was not consulted when they nor the dog trainers were hired, I should have fought with the studio to come up with alternatives to serve those functions. I didn’t, and there is nothing to mitigate my inaction. I’m deeply sorry about that.
Before the first real take, the handlers were asked to change the start point of the dog from the left side, where he had rehearsed, to the right side. That, evidentially, is what caused him to be spooked. When the dog didn’t want to do the scene from the new position, they cut, though not soon enough, and then went back to the original position. The dog was comfortable and went in on his own and they shot the scene. The TMZ video only shows the unfinished take of when the dog was on the right side. What is clear from viewing all the footage was that the dog was NEVER forced into the water.
That PETA has an impossible agenda and that someone probably tried to make money by making my film look bad, does not excuse the mistakes made 15 months ago, irrespective of the fact that the dog in question was unharmed.
Further, I saw video shot last Thursday morning of the dog and I’m happy to say that Hercules is obviously quite well.
Animal Abuse On “A Dog’s Purpose” Set? (VIDEO)
If you saw A Dog’s Purpose two years ago, then you already have a pretty good idea of what you’re getting into with the movie’s new sequel: the corny dialogue, the contrived plot, the butt-clenching sense of dread …
Oh, what’s that? You thought A Dog’s Purpose was supposed to be an uplifting, family-friendly adventure, not a horror movie? Allow me to refresh your memory, then. The premise of A Dog’s Purpose is that a dog named Bailey is reincarnated over and over, in an endless cycle of suffering, while trying to figure out his reason for living. Inspiring? Perhaps. But this dog also dies so many times over the course of those two hours—from old age, euthanasia, even a gunshot wound—that dog lovers in the audience can only live in fear of what will kill Bailey next. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement
This vicious cycle continues into A Dog’s Journey, where this time Bailey’s mission is to protect CJ, the perpetually imperiled granddaughter of his most beloved owner from the first movie, Ethan. This proves just as harrowing as the events of the original, so if you’re going to subject yourself to this, you may want to read up on all the ways that Bailey dies (or very nearly dies), so you can be sure you’re up for every agonizing moment.