ARTICLE

Animal Abuse On 'A Dog's Purpose' Set Debunked

By Freddy / 07 Feb 2017 (Tuesday)

Image Credit: Universal Pictures

In January, a video given to the gossip site TMZ.com went viral, depicting the apparent abuse of a German Shepherd named Hercules during the filming of the comedy-drama ‘A Dog’s Purpose’. After an independent investigation by third-party animal cruelty expert, American Humane declares that the “edited video mischaracterized what happens on set.”

The video contains two scenes. The first shows a handler seemingly forcing the reluctant Hercules to swim in the water. The second scene shows the handlers rescuing Hercules from the water. The video gives the impression that Hercules drowns after being forced to swim.

Investigation and eyewitness reports conclude that the video was edited to deliberately mislead the viewers to draw such conclusion. The two scenes are filmed at different times. Filming was stopped after the first scene. The second scene was filmed only after Hercules is willing to return to the water, and is promptly rescued and cared for afterwards.

A lot of people think that the handling of Hercules in the first scene is bad enough, even without editing it together with the second scene. American Humane admits this, believing that “the handling of the dog in the first scene in the video should have been gentler and signs of stress recognized earlier.” But they also note that “this was recognized and the scene did not proceed as insinuated by the misleadingly edited video.”

Two videos of healthy, happy Hercules were released soon after the viral video. A veterinary checkup performed last week also found Hercules to be healthy.

The full statement from American Humane can be found on their website, detailing the results of investigation and their role in filming and the procedures in check to ensure animals’ safety during filming.

This scandal highlights the power of social media and underlines the importance of fact-checking. Seemingly reliable video evidence might be misleading and inevitably destroy reputations before the people involved can clarify. American Humane brings up a point about how whoever edited and published the video “waited longer than 15 months to release the manipulated video only days before the movie’s premiere, raise serious questions about their motives and ethics.”

‘A Dog’s Purpose’ opens in theatres 2 March 2017.

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Animal Abuse On 'A Dog's Purpose' Set Debunked