I don’t know about any of you, but there’s one movie I’ve been looking forward to watching ever since I saw the trailer months ago. This movie is “A Dog’s Purpose”. A little while back, my mother read this book, and recommended it to me. I grew up as a dog lover – obsessed, really – and I believed this was probably the greatest book/movie idea to date… until I saw the video that leaked a few days ago.

In case you haven’t seen a trailer, “A Dog’s Purpose” seems like a lovely, touching, sad, exciting, emotional, and amazing story about the life of a dog. The dog is essentially the narrator of the story. His first owner is a young boy. The two become best friends, and age together. Unfortunately, as the boy gets older, so does his dog. When the dog passes away, he finds himself returning to Earth in the body of a different breed. This cycle continues through breeds, sexes, sizes and colors of dogs, until one day he returns to that same boy, who is now an older man. Truly, it seems to be a touching story, that all of us dog owners hope is true.

While the movie will inevitably be a good one, there’s a ton of controversy surrounding it. Just a few short days ago, a video was released from the set of the movie. If you haven't already watched it, you can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csLiYr5OGbg. Apparently, during one of the scenes, the dog is required to jump into running water, which I presume is to rescue the boy. However, in order to film this scene, the dog is forced to jump into a fast moving whirlpool.

In the video, one of the workers on set is seen holding down the German Shepherd, and trying to force it into the whirlpool. The man is physically grabbing and forcing the dog downward. What really gets me is that the person taking the video says, “Don’t worry, it’s warm water at least… you just gotta throw him in”. I’m sorry, what? It doesn’t matter if the water is warm. The water is turbulent. Even so, I’d love to hear that man tell them to just throw a person in, too.

This video is frightening, angering, and saddening to watch. It is clear that they didn’t take into account the fact that this is forcing a living being against its will. They didn’t seem to care that this particular dog may be afraid of water, or is smart enough to realize this fast-pace water may kill them. They didn’t care that this poor dog may have a heart attack out of fear, or suffer psychologically. Let’s not forget that this dog will probably be afraid of, or violent toward, people as a result of this event.

Besides these obvious facts, it’s just straight up inhumane to do this to an animal, or to rationalize doing so, especially for the entertainment of human beings. One of the largest questions in regard to this video is why it was necessary for them to do so with a real animal. Today, computer graphics play such a large role in creating motion pictures – so why is this movie any different?

I really hope that this public upset makes way to the producers of the film. If I’m being honest, this film represents a story that I would love to see. Still, I struggle to decide whether or not I should watch this film. Is it right to support such harm? Either way, I sure hope that this kind of cruelty stops. A dog’s purpose is not to be forced against its will to film a movie, to make a profit and to receive high ratings. A dog’s purpose is a hell of a lot different.