A Dog’s Purpose is an upcoming movie based on the novel written by W. Bruce Cameron about a dog finding his purpose in life through the lives of humans he’s touched. If you’re a dog lover, like myself, maybe you have been rewatching the trailer over and over until the time came to actually watch the movie. But, if you’re a dog lover – or really just an animal lover, you may not want to watch it at all.
TMZ got a hold of footage from the set of the movie forcing a terrified german shepherd into a pool of turbulent water. In the video you can see the dog clawing at the edge of the pool clearly not wanting to jump in.
https://twitter.com/roseoddity/status/821875171992674304/video/1
The director of A Dog’s Purpose went to social media and said he was “disturbed by the video released today” and stated he was not there to witness the actions, although TMZ reports Isse Hallstrom was “present the whole time”.
I did not witness these actions.
We were all committed to providing a loving and safe environment for all the animals in the film.— lasse hallstrom (@HallstromLasse) January 19, 2017
Currently, an investigation is being conducted and Universal Pictures is looking into the circumstances. Animal abuse isn’t new to Hollywood, unfortunately; and it is often overlooked or buried within a month of the movie release. Movies like The Life of Pi, Eight Below, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, etc. have history of animal abuse on set, some of these movies were even accredited with AHA’s label of “No Animals Were Harmed” when records show they were.
Boycotting these movies can really only do so much, since a large portion of the public isn’t really aware. Along with boycotting, we should continue the conversation of the movie industry’s cruel behavior towards animals and advocate for better lives for them in and out of the movie industry.
