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5 years of A Dog's Purpose: A beautiful film, starring Dennis Quaid-Josh Gad, ruined by controversies about animal cruelty

Directed by Lasse Hallström, the film is a love letter to pets but it, however, landed in soup after a video from the sets leaked online, which showed the dog being abused

5 years of A Dog's Purpose: A beautiful film, starring Dennis Quaid-Josh Gad, ruined by controversies about animal cruelty
A Dog's Purpose

Last Updated: 08.06 AM, Sep 12, 2022

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Hold me guilty! I would be lying if I say I did not love the film, A Dog's Purpose. The film felt like a tribute to pets and being an animal lover myself, I cried my eyes out every time Bailey died in the movie. The film is about a pet dog, Bailey who is trying to find out what the purpose of his life is, in his every rebirth. But it was only after watching it in theatres that I got to know about the leaked video from the sets that showed animal abuse and how people were boycotting the film to voice their angst against animal cruelty. 

The film celebrates its fifth anniversary this year. Directed by Lasse Hallström, the film features Britt Robertson, KJ Apa, John Ortiz, Dennis Quaid and Josh Gad. It was released on March 31, 2017, in India. The film is based on a book of the same name by W. Bruce Cameron. It tells the story of one dog Bailey who is reincarnated numerous times in the form of different breeds so that he can find the purpose of his life and have an impact on the lives of various human owners who goes up to. He finally ends up at his first owner's house, Ethan. Ever since the trailer was out and its emotional storyline was revealed, it hit a chord with the audience. 

A Dog's Purpose
A Dog's Purpose

Three weeks before the release of the film in the US in January, it was estimated that the film will earn more than $25 million in its opening weekend, way less than what the production house, Amblin Entertainment had used to make the movie. But on January 18, a video from the sets got leaked on the internet where a terrified German Shepherd is seen being forced into the water, flowing with high turbulence. This video stunned several animal lovers and welfare organisations. Though the makers claimed that the video has been edited and that he was actually eagerly waiting to jump into the water. According to Los Angeles Times, Universal Pictures cancelled the red carpet premiere and promotional press junket for the film to avoid a 'public relations nightmare'. But the damage was already done. 

The actor, Josh Gad who does the voice-over for the protagonist in the film, Bailey, later responded to these allegations. He took to Twitter and shared his statement. He said he signed on to the film because he felt it is 'the most beautiful love letter to animals' but later, he came across the 'disturbing' video. He said though he does not know all the details and cannot speak regarding the welfare of the animal that was being undertaken on the sets, he is 'shaken and sad' to see the animal in such a situation. He further added that he has reached out to the production house for an explanation. 

It was quite shocking, even for me, to see that it happened on the sets of the Swedish director Lasse, who has made the popular Hachi: A Dog's Tale and his earlier movie, My Life As a Dog. He too responded to the controversy and conveniently said he too was unaware of the incident and would investigate the matter. Calling himself a 'lifelong animal lover' and that A Dog's Purpose is his third film, he said in his series of tweets, 'The animals’ safety was of utmost priority' for everyone on the set. He had earlier told the LA Times that he usually does not interfere with what the trainers are doing. Pooch Hall, one of the actors in the film retweeted the filmmaker's tweet and added that the dogs were in fact, treated like 'kings' on the sets.     

Dennis Quaid who is the lead actor in the movie had said on Ellen DeGeneres' show that the video did not tell the 'whole story'. But producer Gavin Polone acknowledged that “mistakes were made” during the scene in question and wished he had found a better animal monitor team than the American Humane Association, which most studios employ, despite several complaints about lax oversight by them.  

I felt angry and guilty too as I did not find out about this before I paid and watched the movie. I was shocked to see the video. My former boss, with whom I watched the movie, was also left in shock. We just wished we hadn't watched the movie, even though the story made me love my pet even more. In protest, I did not go ahead and watch its sequel, A Dog's Journey that released in 2019.

Usually, such dog movies have proved to do good business as it already gets an audience of pet lovers and owners. Their production budget is much cheaper than say, an average action movie. Marley & Me, which was about a notorious labrador, was a huge success and earned more than $240 million worldwide. However, the film A Dog's Purpose managed to earn Rs 205 million worldwide. The film is now available on SonyLIV.