Dear Editor:
Please allow me to correct misinformation in Hilary Ferrand's recent movie review ("A Dog's Purpose, Rated PG," Feb. 15). PETA did not release the video footage of a dog named Hercules being forced into churning water on the set of A Dog's Purpose. TMZ did, after it was given to them by someone who was there on the set when it happened.
It’s clear to anyone with eyes and a heart that Hercules was terrified and did not want to go into the water. He was terrorized for movie scenes—there’s no spinning or defending that.
And the new report commissioned by American Humane confirms that a dog was forced into churning water on not just one, buttwo occasions. During one of these incidents, the dog was submerged.
There is simply no excuse for this, especially since computer-generated imagery, blue screen, animatronics, and other technologies can replace the use (and abuse) of animals in movies altogether. Films likeThe Jungle Book and Planet of the Apes have created stunningly realistic scenes without involving animals at all.
Kind people are staying far, far away fromA Dog's Purpose and other movies that treat living, feeling beings as if they were props.