The film “A Dog’s Purpose” accused of animal cruelty after distressed dog footage emerges!

by Top Retriever · Published 20 January · Updated 15 August

Watch the controversial video!

Based on the trailer, director Lasse Hallström’s A Dog’s Purpose looks even more emotionally manipulative than the average dog movie. It stars Josh Gad as the inner monologue of an animal who lives, dies, and is reincarnated as a new dog multiple times, learning and teaching heartwarming lessons along the way. In a shocking and depressing bit of irony, though, it looks like the filmmakers actually put at least one real dog’s life in danger while filming the movie. A video, released this week during the filming of A Dog’s Purpose, shows a trainer forcing a dog into churning water.

Peta has since said it was “calling on dog lovers to boycott the film A Dog’s Purpose in order to send the message that dogs and other animals should be treated humanely, not as movie props.” The minute-long video shows a man off camera laughing as the trainer repeatedly tried to persuade the scared animal into the water. “Don’t worry, it’s warm water at least. He ain’t gonna calm down until he goes in the water,” the man said. “You just gotta throw him in.” Footage showed the dog’s paws briefly touching the water at one point, before the animal managed to claw his way out of the pool. “He gets his feet wet, learns it’s not cold. He wants to get away, just throw him in,” the man can be heard saying as he laughs.

The movie has been cancelled!

(The trainer) is going to end up going in with him. The dog was eventually forced into the water but immediately became submerged. Panic then broke out among the film crew when the dog appeared to go under in the choppy water. Two trainers were filmed swimming towards the animal as someone frantically yelled “cut it, cut it“. UPDATE: The Saturday premiere of the movie A Dog’s Purpose has been cancelled as many movie-goers and animal lovers call for boycotting the movie. Watch the video and let us know what do you think about this!

Apparently, Hallström was present while this was happening, and at least one crew member was “extremely disturbed” by what was happening. Amblin Partners and Universal Pictures issued a statement saying that the dog in the video, named Hercules, had been rehearsed for the water scenes but resisted on the day of the shooting so the production team did not proceed.

“‘A Dog’s Purpose,’ produced by Amblin Entertainment and distributed by Universal Pictures, is a celebration of the special connection between humans and their dogs,” the companies said.

“And in the spirit of this relationship, the Amblin production team followed rigorous protocols to foster an ethical and safe environment for the animals.

“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.”