“A Dog’s Purpose” under heavy criticism after video surfaces
LOS ANGELES (AP) – This weekend’s premiere of “A Dog’s Purpose” has been canceled following the release of a video that appears to show a frightened dog being forced into churning water during production of the film.
TMZ published video Wednesday that shows a man struggling to put a dog into a pool of rushing water while the dog continually fights to stay out.
Producer Amblin Entertainment and distributor Universal Pictures haven’t disputed the authenticity of the footage.
They say in a joint statement that Universal decided to cancel the premiere because Amblin’s review of the video “is still ongoing.” The statement says the companies have been assured the German shepherd wasn’t harmed.
The companies say the film will be released nationwide as scheduled Jan. 27.
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1/20/2017 10:43:18 AM (GMT -5:00)
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LOS ANGELES (AP) —“A Dog’s Purpose,” the upcoming major motion picture based on the best-selling novel by W. Bruce Cameron, is set to open later this month, but new footage obtained by TMZ has caused outrage among many animal advocacy groups.
The video shows an animal trainer forcing a German shepherd dog into a pool of raging water while the animal tries to escape. The situation is the filmmakers’ attempt to recreate a scene from the book, in which a police K-9 named Ellie rescues someone from a rushing river.
In the video, as the trainer struggles to drop the dog into the water, a voice can be heard saying, “He ain’t gonna calm down ‘til he goes in the water. Just got to throw him in.”
Shortly afterward, the trainer succeeds in getting the dog into the churning water, only to immediately pull the animal back up onto the platform by his collar.
Animal rights advocates say that later in the video, the same animal appears to go under the water. Filmmakers then rush toward the area of water, under which the animal just disappeared, shouting, “Cut it!”
The American Humane Society told the Associated Press that it is investigating.
The Human Society also suspended its safety representative who worked on the film and is hiring an independent investigator to explore the matter.
The director of the film took to social media Wednesday night, saying he was “disturbed by the video released today from the set of my film.”
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