Celebrities React on Twitter to Terrible ‘A Dog’s Purpose’ Video
Hollywood films usually have a splashy, star-studded premiere in the days before they open in theaters. The bigger the movie, the bigger the festivities tend to be. Then there’s A Dog’s Purpose: After devastating eyewitness footage was released by TMZ, which showed that a dog was forced into churning water on set despite his frantic attempts to resist, the immediate and widespread outrage was hard to ignore. The impact of the footage was so profound—even the film’s director and the actor who voiced the main character expressed shock and sadness—that the companies behind the film (Universal Pictures and Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment) canceled the planned premiere and media junket.
As the disturbing video spread around the world, an equally vast wave of anger and disappointment rose on social media.
Hollywood, music, reality, and internet stars alike took to Twitter and shared their outrage over an animal’s suffering for the sake of entertainment, and many called for a boycott of the film:
You know it’s bad when a media consultant chimes in with calls for a boycott:
Seriously, though—anyone with a heart had a reaction:
Unfortunately, mistreatment of animal “actors” is not uncommon:
Phora sums it up perfectly:
This terrible incident and video may come as a gut-wrenching surprise to well-meaning moviegoers who care about dogs. But those who are aware of the chronic neglect uncovered at a facility operated by Birds & Animals Unlimited (BAU)—the company that, according to a facility manager, supplied the dogs used in the film—know that this incident is, unfortunately, just one example of a widespread problem.
BAU, operated by Hollywood animal trainer Gary Gero, provides animals for use in film, television, and advertisements. It has rented out animals to hundreds of other productions, including The Hangover, Marley & Me, Game of Thrones, and Pirates of the Caribbean. An eyewitness who worked at BAU documented chronic neglect: Sick and injured animals were denied adequate veterinary care, the enclosures were filthy, and animals were denied food so that they would be hungry while trained to do tricks.
Sadly, such abuse appears to be the norm, not the exception, in the entertainment industry, where animal suffering is just “business as usual” for humans trying to make a buck.
Pledge to avoid contributing to this cruel practice by not buying tickets to A Dog’s Purpose or any other movies that use live animals.
Share this video with your family and friends who care about dogs—and all animals. Let them know that animals aren’t “actors” and that they often suffer both on and off camera when used for entertainment.
