Enfnts Terribles

That’s also why I was extremely upset last week. While I was scrolling through Twitter, I stumbled upon a video by TMZ. I only noticed that it said “A Dog’s Purpose”, and I recognized it as the movie that would be coming out soon. Not reading any further, I just clicked on the video and started watching. What I saw completely shocked me.

A Dog’s Purpose: abuse?

It shows a German Shepard and it’s handler on the set of the movie, where they were shooting a scene by VERY turbulent water. The dog named Hercules is visibly uncomfortable, and even though he’s resisting, he is dipped into the water. You can even hear someone behind the camera say “just throw him in!” while laughing. Then the video cuts, and it shows Hercules going under in the violent water. As Hercules starts DROWNING, everybody panics and someone starts swimming to get to him. Then someone yells to “cut it” and the video ends. You can watch it for yourself below, but warning: it may be disturbing.

Of course everyone started freaking out immediately. Director Lasse Hallström quickly stated on Twitter that he “did not witness the actions in the video” and that he was “very disturbed“. Production company Amblin Entertainment followed with a statement saying that “Hercules did not want to perform the stunt, so the production team did not proceed with filming that shot.” Also that “Hercules is happy and healthy“. Quite a weird statement if you ask me. Indeed, Hercules did not want to perform the stunt, but as seen on the video, the team DID proceed with filming. Shortly after, they canceled the scheduled Los Angeles premiere. The American Humane Association, which ensures animal safety on movie sets, then announced that it suspended it’s representative who was on set and that they are going to conduct an independent investigation.

Rehearsal footage

He also rambles about footage of the rehearsal for the scene, and how the dog was “desperate to jump in” and not at all afraid. He goes on and on and also says that its “clear from viewing all the footage that the dog was never forced into the water.” Well Mr Polone, where is this so called footage? If the footage exists, why not just throw it out there? He is certainly eager about showing screenshots with a dog manipulated into the scene with CGI (computer-generated imagery). Although it’s unclear what he’s trying to prove with sharing these, why not share the footage? Above all, why was it necessary to throw a dog into swirling water if CGI is perfectly possible? He says that it would be too expensive to not use real animals and make the whole movie with just CGI. But sure it was possible to make the scene showed in the screenshots?

A lot of the things Gavin Polone and others say just don’t make any sense. I do believe that Polone has a heart for animals and that he maybe didn’t know what happened. But, there are too many excuses. They should just OWN UP to it and that’s that.  NO excuses. Make sure this never happens again. I do agree with Polone on the fact that The American Humane Association and their work should be investigated. It’s obviously not doing what it’s supposed to do.