A Dog's Purpose Boycott
What You Need to Know About the Boycott Against A Dog's Purpose
Update Jan. 22: According to a producer who worked on the movie, Gavin Polone, the dog was not in any danger while filming. "I looked at the video of all of this. (The dog) gets under the froth of the water but he is lifted up by the diver. He came up and he was fine. If your stated goal is to never use any animal on a movie set ever again, then they are trying to use the video that someone probably sold to TMZ to get a commitment for that," Gavin explained.
He added, "There are so many things that you don't see . . . there are raised platforms under the water. There is a (scuba) diver under the water. You don't see the safety people on the other side."
Original story: Last week, a disturbing video from the set of A Dog's Purpose was released by TMZ. In it, a terrified German Shepherd can be seen trying to avoid jumping into the water for a scene and eventually being forced in. The video cuts to another part where the dog is in the water and clearly panicking before cutting off completely. You can hear someone yelling in the background, "Cut it!" right before it cuts out. Just a few days later, Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment, the studios behind the film, canceled the Los Angeles premiere that was set for the weekend.
The video is taking the internet by storm, and everyone is chiming in, from celebrities to the movie's director, Lasse Hallström, to, of course, PETA. Josh Gad, who voices one of the dogs in the movie, posted this on Twitter in reaction to the video:
— Josh Gad (@joshgad) January 19, 2017
Hallström tweeted that he was disturbed by the video and called himself a lifelong animal-lover and said he was unaware of this animal cruelty when it was happening while filming in Canada. He tweeted, "We were all committed to providing a loving and safe environment for all the animals in the film."
But the fact of the matter is that this animal cruelty did happen, and PETA is asking everyone to boycott the film. PETA had previously reported on neglect by Birds & Animals Unlimited, the company that provided A Dog's Purpose with its animals. The organization said, "An eyewitness who worked at BAU documented chronic neglect, including sick and injured animals who went without adequate veterinary care, filthy enclosures, and animals who were denied food so that they would be hungry while trained to do tricks."
Amblin Entertainment and Universal Pictures told TMZ that the incident was being investigated and that the "ethical treatment of our animal actors was of the utmost importance."
