About a month ago I was contacted by the Newfoundland Herald to write a piece on the controversy surrounding the movie “A Dog’s Purpose”. At that time, the TMZ video was making it’s rounds. It portrayed Hercules, a German Shepard used in the movie having difficulty with one of the scenes. The video immediately met with public backlash. There were calls from PETA to boycott the movie, the public was horrified and trainers came out of the woodwork denouncing the obvious practices being used.
I viewed the video many times. It was indeed shocking. However, I was reluctant to accept it at face value. I wrote my piece with this view in mind.
Here is the article for those that missed it:
By now many of us have seen the video released by TMZ from the set of the movie A Dog’s Purpose. It was a cell phone video shot over a year ago that shows Hercules, a German Shepard and one of the stars of the movie, being held above a tank of water by his trainer. He appears to be struggling and wanting nothing to do with the water. The video quickly cuts to another scene of Hercules swimming across the tank, becoming submerged upon reaching the side and safety divers quickly hurrying toward the spot with somebody in the background yelling “Cut”. The whole video segment is very dramatic. It is accompanied by a commentary from what sounds to be the person taking the video, making statements like “he just has to be thrown in”. Making it even worse is the headline from TMZ saying “A Dog’s Purpose” Terrified German Shepard Into Turbulent Water.
The video met with immediate outrage from groups like PETA and the public as a whole. The discontent was again exacerbated by TMZ who reported updates with “Huge Fine and Jail Time Possible” as one headline and “ A Dog’s Purpose Actor, Director Shaken Over Terrified Dog Video”. The film’s premier was even cancelled.
Fortunately the story may be clickbait.
The video itself is very concerning, don’t misunderstand me. It appears that Hercules is very fearful of the water and that the trainer is using “flooding” in order to achieve the shot. Flooding involves forcibly exposing the subject, in this case Hercules, to a fear inducing stimulus and working him well above his comfort threshold. Flooding has been condemned by most experts in the field. It has no place in dog training. If flooding was used i, wrongdoing should be found. The perpetrators should be punished to the fullest extent of the law and measures put in place to ensure nothing like this happens again. Animals cannot speak for themselves. They rely on their animal advocates. To allow flooding to happen on a movie set is cruel. It is doing a disservice to the animals.
I keep saying “appears” simply because we, the viewers, were not on set to see what
happened. We cannot know what went on before hand, we cannot know what happened after.
We cannot even know the full extent of what occurred during as there seem to be gaps in the
footage. Much is being surmised from these two pieces of edited video footage. We all know
that video like that can never lie. We all know that people would never jump to incorrect
conclusions based on inaccurate information.
How does the old Edgar Allan Poe saying go? “Believe only half of what you see and none of
what you hear”.
What we do know is that this video is being shared over a year later. We know the commentator in the video kept a running dialogue which may not have been reflective of the work occurring nor may it represent the thoughts of the trainer nor the animal experts on the film. We know that TMZ’s headlines are eye catching but not really reflective of the information contained in the articles themselves. Often times, the information reported in the articles is very toned down and only bares a resemblance to the article headline. We know that representatives from the American Humane Society were present during the making of the film including the released video and felt nothing untoward happened that day nor any other day in the filming. We know the representative that day has been placed on administrative leave while an investigation by an independent third party takes place. We have been informed that Amblin Entertainment, Universal, the film’s director, the main actors and the book’s author were concerned with what they saw in the video, want an independent investigation to occur but state that in no way is it reflective of their observations during the making of the film. This leaves many unanswered questions.
Simply reviewing the raw footage would clear up a lot of the conjecture that is occurring. Assessing any training logs kept by the dog’s trainer and reviewing training days used to prepare the dog for the shoot, would help. Viewing unedited footage from the scene would be of big benefit as would getting explanations and descriptions from the trainer, the safety crew and the animal welfare representatives who were actually on the scene that day. All of which I am assuming, will be done in the investigation which is taking place at the time of this writing.
If the investigation says that nothing untoward happened and is able to provide rationale for
their decision, I can accept that. If the investigation finds fault, punitive action needs to be
taken. It is imperative a message gets sent out that actions like this will not be tolerated.
The problem at present is that much of the current outrage is conjecture. It is speculation. The video itself is disturbing. People’s outrage is being stoked by anger inducing headlines which, at this point only serve to entice the public to open the article in their web browser and ultimately fill the money coffers of TMZ and the like. Let’s look at information being given to us with a critical eye whether that information comes from social or news media. If outrage is warranted, rage away. If it is unwarranted, save it. If we do not, the outrage quickly becomes ineffective and will no longer be able to help causes which ultimately need it.
Afterward: Since the video aired, there has been an ongoing investigation. New information has been brought forward which indicates that things are not as cut and dry as the video indicated. It reflects the sentiments I discussed in this article.
I am glad to hear it. Hopefully this investigation spurs an increased examination of our animal practices, whether they be in Holywood or in our homes. Having an animal is a privilege and this privilage should never be taken for granted.
For those looking for the new information, here is a news clipping from CBC