And Now, A Depressing Story About Cruelty To A Dog Actor

January 19, 2017 / Posted by:

Milo & Otis was one of my favorite movies ever until a dark-sided cloud of kitten blood covered it after I read about how that more than a dozen kittehs may have been killed during the making of it. That little cutesy movie turned into a terrifying horror show real fast. Now, as far as we know, no animals were killed during the making of the new movie A Dog’s Purpose, but one German shepherd was definitely left traumatized after the poor pooch was forced into rushing water. Who knew that Michael Vick was now working as an animal stunt coordinator on movies?

Yesterday, TMZ posted behind-the-scenes footage on the Canadian set of A Dog’s Purpose, and in the clip, a trainer is trying to get a German shepherd named Hercules into churning water while shooting an action scene. That churning water is to Hercules as a bottle of shampoo is to Kristen Stewart. Hercules wants nothing to do with that scary water. It looks like Hercules would rather shoot a threesome love scene with two ultra difficult cats than get into that man-made river of doom. Hercules seems terrified and it’s as if he just heard the words, “Justin Bieber is adopting you.

Based on the clip TMZ posted, it doesn’t look like anybody on that set pressed the stop button on that mess and Hercules is eventually put into the water. But when it looks like Hercules is completely under, someone yells “cut” as the crew tries to get to him. What really tops this ugly scene is a crew dude saying, “Eh, he ain’t gonna calm down until he goes in the water. Just gotta throw him in.” Stupid ass bitch, it’s not a jacuzzi and I doubt someone was going to hand Hercules a glass of rosé and serenade him with some Kenny G after he got in. It’s not a Calgon bath for fuck’s sake! Although it does look like Hercules wants to be taken away, far away from that churning water.

Warning: You may need a palate cleanser after seeing this clip, so here’s a link to one in the form of the friendship between a German shepherd and some kitten friends.

Hollywood loves CGI and that scene just had to be the one scene where they didn’t CGI the dog.

Everybody has something to say about what went down with Hercules. The movie’s director Lasse Hallström said on Twitter that he was disturbed by the footage and claims he wasn’t there at the time (TMZ says he was on set at the time). Josh Gad, who does the voice of one of the dogs, tweeted that he was also disturbed by the clip. PETA is calling for a boycott and doesn’t want anyone to see A Dog’s Purpose when it’s released on January 27.

The American Humane Association, who works to make sure animals are treated right on sets, had a rep on the set of A Dog’s Purpose in Winnipeg, Manitoba. They have put that rep on suspension and say they’re bringing in a third-party to investigate the incident.

The movie’s production company, Amblin Entertainment, and distributor, Universal Pictures, issued a joint statement saying they too are going to investigate, but they think that Hercules was treated well:

“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. [Hercules] is happy and healthy.”

Why do I have a feeling that once the “investigation” is done, they’ll all declare that Hercules was not harmed at all. And they’ll do more damage control by putting Hercules (aka an actor in a German Shepherd costume) on The Tonight Show where he’ll tell Jimmy Fallon that he wasn’t scared. He just didn’t want to mess up the flawless blow-out job that the hair people did on him in the trailer before shooting. You know how vain actors are!

Pic: Universal Pictures

Our commenting rules: Don't be racist or bigoted, or post comments like "Who cares?", or have multiple accounts, or repost a comment that was deleted by a mod, or post NSFW pics/videos/GIFs, or go off topic when not in an Open Post, or post paparazzi/event/red carpet pics from photo agencies due to copyright infringement issues. Also, promoting adblockers, your website, or your forum is not allowed. Breaking a rule may result in your Disqus account getting permanently or temporarily banned. New commenters must go through a period of pre-moderation. And some posts may be pre-moderated so it could take a minute for your comment to appear if it's approved. If you have a question or an issue with comments, email: michaelk@dlisted.com

src="https://c.statcounter.com/922697/0/f674ac4a/1/"
alt="drupal analytics" >