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"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.Īccording 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. The German shepherd clearly does not want to be in the water, and is not in a playful mood.īut what must also be made clear is that the video is edited. It’s hard to watch, as you can visibly see the dog in distress. 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. Toward the end of the video, it appears to go underwater and it looks like people on the set panic a bit. At one point, the dog is hanging on to the edge of the pool. 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. The center of this controversy is an exclusive video released by TMZ. Your browser does not support HTML5 video. Here’s what we know so far: The alleged abuse revolves around a German shepherd seemingly forced into rough waters And the movie’s premiere has been canceled. The companies involved in producing and distributing the film are now investigating the incident as well. The video appears to be authentic, as the American Humane Association has responded by suspending its field representative who was supposed to be supervising the film’s treatment of its animal performers, and the film’s director has publicly rebuked the alleged abuse taking place. On January 18, TMZ published footage of what could possibly be animal cruelty involving one of the dogs on set.
#A dogs purpose footage movie#
The recent news surrounding the movie might change that. It’s safe to say its audience might include almost everyone, but especially animal lovers. After a year where the spread of fake news reports percolated through social media, it’s worth remembering that fabricated and planted stories aren’t limited to the realm of political discourse.A Dog’s Purpose, the upcoming film from Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment about how dogs don’t really die but instead are reincarnated over and over as other dogs to teach humans about love, was never going to be more than a slightly manipulative, feel-good movie targeted at anyone who has a soft-spot for puppies. According to Deadline, it’s not entirely clear if the video had any effect on the film’s box office totals, which pulled in around $20 million during its opening weekend.Įven if the effect of the video was minimal, the video going viral certainly stoked outrage on social media, which put the film’s creators in a position where they had to spend weeks defending their production, rather than the film itself. The statement also explained that the dog, a German Shepherd named Hercules, had been “trained and conditioned” for his scenes, and that while he did show signs of distress, filming had stopped and that he “was not forced to swim in the water at any time.” American Humane agreed that the “handling of the dog in the first scene in the video should have been gentler and signs of stress recognized earlier,” but explained that the production was adjusted and proceeded without incident.Īmerican Humane used the statement to blast animal rights organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and the video’s creators for stoking the controversy, noting that the release appears to have been timed in conjunction with the film’s release. The organization explained that the investigation had been carried out by “conducted by a respected animal cruelty expert.” It found that experts were present, that the proper safety precautions were taken during the film’s production, and that the dog in question was healthy. The report backs up statements from the film’s crew that the video was misleading, though it has not been made available for review, and a request to the American Humane Association weren’t returned by publication time. The American Humane Association, the organization that supervised the treatment of the dogs on the film’s set, issued a statement this morning that the investigation had concluded and that the video “was deliberately edited for the purpose of misleading the public and stoking outrage,” noting that the two scenes in the video had been edited together. The video “was deliberately edited for the purpose of misleading the public and stoking outrage”