PETA…I’m Calling You Out #ADogsPurpose

PETA is protesting A Dog's Purpose using a video that came out a while ago. It shows a dog being coerced into doing something it does NOT want to do. And I'm here to call PETA out on their B as in B and S as in S.

I wasn't going to see it, but now, I am DEFINITELY spending the money on iA Dog's Purpose.

I am so sick of PETA being all "we love animals"...they just seem to be about getting attention and donations. But, that's for later in the blog. For now, if you haven't seen the video of the dog in trouble, you can search youtube for it. I don't wanna link it here. It's awful. The dog is supposed to do a thing where he jumps in the pool, and the dog is super resistant, for what feels like forever.

In my book, after the dog says no, you stop. That's it. I think everyone agrees with the video being hard to watch because the dog is in major distress.

However, PETA has an agenda...and their agenda doesn't include the whole story, just the bit that'll grab headlines, get attention, and, hey...bring in donations maybe? It's not an uncommon tactic for cause groups. It's just PETA takes it to what I consider a new low.

Gavin Polone is 'A Dog's Purpose' director. And he wrote this amazing piece for The Hollywood Reporter that is, I think, the perfect response to the outcry. If you're thinking, "Of course you like it, you don't like PETA!" Sure, I don't like PETA. You're right. That doesn't mean what he's saying isn't worth reading, tho.

Polone is a massive lover of animals. In no way does he condone what the video shows.

As with the TMZ video that you saw, two things were evident: 1) the dog handler tries to force the dog, for 35 to 40 seconds, into the water when, clearly, he didn’t want to go in; and 2) in a separate take filmed sometime later, the dog did go into the water, on his own, and, at the end, his head is submerged for about 4 seconds. These two things are absolutely INEXCUSABLE and should NEVER have happened.

What he does do is wonder why the whole video isn't shown. The whole video shows

the dog doing the stunt from a different side of the pool and lovin' every minute of it. So excited they could barely keep him out of the water.

They changed the side of the pool, the dog didn't want to do it, and when they switched back to the other side of the pool...the dog did the stunt. On the first try. One take.

Why I Can't Stand PETA

It's simple...they aren't honest in their message.  In this case, the director clearly shows how they manipulate the message for maximum return.

Not only have they been circulating the TMZ video, which portrays an inaccurate picture of what happened, but they have included a clip from our trailer where you see the dog jumping into a treacherous rushing wall of water.

But THAT ISN’T A REAL DOG, it is a computer-generated dog leaping into the water. Isn’t that the definition of "fake news"? In another post, they show a German Shepherd in a dismal steel cage, which isn’t our dog. Again, misleading.

Finally...he mentions something that is so much on my mind when I think of PETA. They're opposed to the no-kill shelter movement??? Yup.

More troubling, PETA has been against the growing “no-kill” movement to spare the lives of unwanted pets in shelters by advocating for and facilitating pet adoption. No-kill has vastly reduced the number of euthanized animals in cities around the country.

Conversely, according to The Washington Post, at a shelter in Virginia, owned by PETA, the euthanasia rate was 80 percent and in some years the rate has been as high as 90 percent (the rate in Los Angeles city shelters, thanks in large part to The Best Friends Animal Society’s “No Kill LA” program, has dropped by 66 percent to about 16 percent).

 

That Post article contained a quote from another senior vp of PETA, who explained that "there are many fates worse than euthanasia.”

So...there you go. Why I think you can feel OK about seeing A Dog's Purpose. If you disagree, I'd love to hear your perspective.