By 
The movie A Dog's Purpose is a heartwarming story of how dogs can change our lives for the better. But the film is now under scrutiny after footage was leaked allegedly showing a dog being mistreated on the set.
TMZ posted footage Wednesday of an animal handler forcing a German shepherd to get into choppy waters on a Winnipeg, Canada set in 2015, despite the dog clearly resisting and trying to run away. The dog clawed at the edge, but was finally placed into the water for a few seconds before being pulled out. A separate clip shows the dog having trouble swimming in the artificial rapids, and a handler having to go get him. According to the report, director Lasse Hallström was there the whole time. Hallström disputes that, saying on Twitter that he "did not witness these actions."
Production company Amblin Entertainment and distributor Universal Pictures have defended how they treated animals on set. People reports that they say the film "followed rigorous protocols to foster an ethical and safe environment for animals." They said that the film went through several days of rehearsal with the German shepherd, Hercules, to make sure he was comfortable doing stunts. "On the day of the shoot, Hercules did not want to perform the stunt portrayed on the tape so the Amblin production team did not proceed with filming that shot," the company said in a statement, adding that the dog is currently "happy and healthy."
Either way, people have expressed outrage about what they saw in the clip, according to CNN. Animal rights activists have been giving the film one-star ratings on IMDB, and flooding the movie's social media channels with negative comments. PETA has called for dog lovers to boycott the film, and Josh Gad, who was a voice actor on the film, said he was "shaken" and reaching out to the production company to get answers.
Gavin Polone, an animal rights activist himself who was a producer on the film, told Deadline he was "horrified" by the footage. "If I had seen that, I would have stopped it in a minute. People have to be held responsible for this," he said. "It was someone's job to watch out for this kind of thing. Why didn't they?"
According to TMZ, American Humane has suspended the safety representative who was on set to make sure no animals were harmed, and is conducting an independent investigation. A Dog's Purpose is set to be released on January 27, and a trailer briefly shows the German shepherd, who plays a police dog, jumping into choppy waters.
