Many dog lovers have been anticipating the Jan. 27 release of the movie “A Dog’s Purpose,” a tear-jerker about a reincarnated pooch who teaches people how to love and laugh.
But disturbing behind-the-scenes footage posted today on TMZ.com shows that the filmmakers have a lot to learn about love and compassion for animals. Anyone who does care about animals should scratch “A Dog’s Purpose” off their must-see list — or, for that matter, their ever-see list.
The video shows a visibly terrified German Shepherd being forced to go into a pool as the dog tries to get away and claws at the edges. Eight outboard motors were used to create strong waves so the pool would resemble a rushing river, TMZ reports.
When the German Shepherd was finally forced into the pool, he or she was submerged — which may not have been in the script. Someone shouts “Cut it!” and handlers rescue the poor dog.
The trailer for “A Dog’s Purpose” shows the German Shepherd in the water.
A dog’s purpose is not to be mistreated by humans. Please see my Care2.com story for updated information about this incident and join me in boycotting “A Dog’s Purpose.”
The dangerous ways in which some people choose to transport their pets is downright mind-boggling — inside the trunk of their car, for example (which is legal in California!), or chained to a flatbed on a busy freeway (which is legal in Texas!), or on the roof of a station wagon (as Mitt Romney famously enjoyed doing).
If a Darwin Award was handed out to people who cause their pets’ deaths due to their own stupidity, one of this year’s contenders would be a knucklehead from Flagler County, Fla. This person thought it was a good idea to put a kennel filled with dogs on a trailer attached to his SUV, tether a Pit Bull with one measly rope to the top of the kennel, and then go speeding 70 miles per hour down Highway 95 this week.
The poor dog, whose name is Zeus, can be seen crouching on top of the trailer in a video posted on Facebook by Brenna Cronin that’s been viewed over 1.7 million times.
“I was just completely outraged and appalled,” Cronin told ABC News. “I couldn’t believe it.” The dog, who has the letter “S” seared onto its leg, “stood up and was looking at me so sad,” she said. “I had to do something.”
When the dog saw her, Cronin told CNN he stood up and looked scared. “You know when dogs are happy, they have their tail wagging and a big smile. He was terrified,” she said.
On the other hand, when the driver of the Chevrolet Tahoe saw her recording the video, he flipped her off.
According to a Flagler County ordinance, dogs transported in the open beds of pickup trucks “should be in a pen or restrained by a minimum of two tethers or some other similar method,” KTVU reports. Zeus only had one tether.
Flagler County Animal Services has tracked down the dog’s owner, who — surprise, surprise — doesn’t want to be identified, and ticketed him, but would not indicate the charges.
The owner doesn’t think it’s any big deal. He told WTLV it was an “okay” way to transport dogs and “how everybody transports.”
“Everybody?” I’m 100 percent sure that no responsible dog owners or anyone in their right mind would transport their pets that way.
Here’s a photo of Zeus taken by another driver on the interstate. He looks miserable. Is there anything remotely “okay” about this?!
And what about the “S” on Zeus’ leg? Such branding is common for dogs forced to fight. The owner insisted Zeus is just a hunting dog who goes after hogs. He claimed the “S” was there when he got Zeus as a puppy.
Flagler County Animal Services is currently conducting a wellness check, according to WTLV, and will turn their findings over the the sheriff’s department. Here’s hoping Zeus is taken away from this jerk and rehomed with a much better owner — which shouldn’t be too difficult at all.
On a summery day like yesterday in Los Angeles, crowds of tourists flock to popular Venice Beach. Despite putting these visitors at risk, an LAPD officer opened fire in the middle of the afternoon on a Pit Bull who he said bit his hand. The bullet passed through the dog and hit the leg of a woman who was riding by on a bicycle.
The woman was taken to UCLA Medical Center, where she was in stable condition yesterday. The dog did not survive.
The unidentified officer who somehow thought it was a good idea to use his gun on a crowded boardwalk has been assigned to non-field duties as this case is being investigated. He will “have to be able to articulate why they used the force they did, and why they did not use other options if they were applicable at the time,” Detective Meghan Aguilar told KTLA.
There’s currently no video available of the shooting incident. It happened after two mounted LAPD officers told a group of people who were blocking part of the bike path to move their belongings. A couple of people in the group became belligerent, and the dog became agitated. When the officers got off their horses, the dog allegedly bit an officer’s hand.
“I heard a struggle, and the next thing I knew, I heard a shot. And I saw the dog laying there,” Tara Borris, a witness, told KCBS. “I think the dog was just protecting his owner. I didn’t hear any growling.”
Terah Clark, a woman in the group, told KCBS the dog’s owner was holding the dog back by his collar when the officer fired.
This case was described by KCBS as “very unusual” because an innocent bystander was also shot — but these cases are not unusual at all. In June 2015 a 4-year-old girl was shot by a cop who was aiming for her family’s dog. Three months before that, a woman in Iowa was killed by an officer’s bullet intended for her dog.
The KCBS report shows the owner sobbing as he holds his dead dog, who Clark said he’d had for 10 years. One person in the group was arrested for an outstanding warrant and another for resisting arrest, but the dog’s owner wasn’t one of them.
Preventing ‘Puppycide’
It’s a horrible statistic, but more than 10,000 pet dogs are shot by police officers in this country every year, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. There’s even a term for it: “puppycide.” To prevent this, some police departments are training their officers in non-lethal ways to deal with scared pets.
In response to the shocking, viral 2013 video of a Hawthorne, Calif., police officer shooting a Rottweiler named Max as his owner begged him not to, spcaLA began offering the class, “Dog Behavior for Law Enforcement” to all police departments in California. (The mounted LAPD officer patrolling Venice Beach yesterday may have skipped this class.)
In 2013, Colorado became the first state to pass a “Dog Protection Act,” which requires similar training for law enforcement officers. Two years later, Texas enacted a law that required the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement to establish a statewide comprehensive training program in dog encounters.
These programs are a good start, but as those sad statistics make clear, teaching law enforcement officers how to humanely deal with dogs should be required in every state.
Fortunately, many police officers inherently know the right way to handle frightened animals. Just last week, two deputies in Florida saw two scared, stray Pit Bulls in the middle of a street. While that LAPD officer would likely have shot both of them, Deputy Boggs and Deputy Reed with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office stayed with the dogs, comforting them until animal services arrived. Good cops, indeed.
March 31, 2017 Update: Michael Heathcock and Richard Finch both pleaded guilty March 1 to the despicable cruelty they inflicted on that poor dog, whose name was Scamp. Each received a sentence of only four months in prison. They also had to pay about $400 in fines and, fortunately, are no longer allowed to have pets.
Heathcock was Scamp’s owner. He said he thought killing Scamp was the right thing to do because the dog was going deaf and blind, and becoming incontinent.
More than 100 people showed up at a March 31 memorial for Scamp. It was led by Reverend Margery Grange, who told GazetteLive, “We do animal blessings quite frequently. We don’t normally do memorials as a rule for dogs, but this is a special case.”
“In all my 10 years working for the RSPCA, I have never known anything so horrifying and inexplicably cruel,” said Inspector Nick Jones. A local veterinarian said it was the worst case of cruelty he’d ever seen in his career.
They were referring to a small, fluffy dog — possibly a Jack Russell or West Highland Terrier mix — who was buried alive in Redcar, England. And that wasn’t the worst of it. A large nail had been pounded into the dog’s skull between his eyes.
A couple walking their dogs in the Kirkleatham Woods on Wednesday afternoon made the gruesome discovery.
“My wife said, ‘Listen, there’s a noise,’ but I said it was probably just a frog,” the man told GazetteLive. “Then when we listened more carefully, we could hear a slight grunting noise. I pulled the ivy back, poked about with a stick and saw some gray fur. Then I realized there was a nose in the mud.”
A man working nearby used a spade to dig the dog out of the shallow grave.
“I just couldn’t believe it. How could anyone be that despicable and cruel to do something like that?” the man said.
Although they rushed the poor dog to the closest veterinarian, he had to be euthanized due to his “immense suffering,” the RSPCA reports.
On Friday, two unidentified 59- and 60-year-old men who live in the area were arrested by Cleveland Police and charged with animal cruelty.
But today these two monsters are safe and sound in their homes, because they were both released on bail.
A public vigil for the dog was held this afternoon at the entrance to Kirkleatham Woods.
Meanwhile, Redcar’s MP Anna Turley has condemned the attack. Last summer, she introduced a bill to Parliament, urging tougher sentences for animal abusers. The bill was inspired by the case of two brothers from Redcar, Andrew and Daniel Frankish, who repeatedly threw their Bulldog down the stairs and stomped on her head. The dog became paralyzed and had to be euthanized because of her injuries. The brothers were sentenced to only 21 weeks in prison.
“We saw with the case of Baby the bulldog and the horrific treatment of her by the Frankish brothers that the sentencing for animal cruelty cases does not reflect the severity of the crime,” Turley said. “It is not a deterrent to individuals committing awful crimes like this against animals.”
Hopefully Turley’s bill will be passed, and those two men will spend a lot of time in prison, thinking about what monsters they are.
The video is very difficult to watch, but has been viewed over 18 million times since Wednesday. A dog that appears to be a Pit Bull mix jumps through the passenger window into an Audi sedan parked on a street in City Terrace, near Los Angeles. A man gets out of the car, carrying the dog, and flings it over a cliff. The obese, bespectacled loser looks around as he walks back to his car, checking to see if anyone is watching.
Fortunately, someone living across the street witnessed this heinous act unfold two weeks ago via a surveillance camera on his house. The good Samaritan, who asked not to be identified, immediately began searching for the dog.
“I came out here with my flashlight looking around, I was making some noise trying to get her attention and sure enough I saw her behind a bush off the cliff,” he told FOX 11.
Amazingly, the poor dog not only survived the 15- to 20-foot fall without any injuries. A bush stopped her from falling farther.
“She’s a very nice dog and very kind,” another nearby resident, Ruben Roque, told FOX 11. “I don’t know how somebody can do that to this dog.”
Roque fostered the dog, who he calls “Girl,” until she was taken by the Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control as evidence in its animal cruelty investigation. Roque, who’s a combat veteran, hopes to adopt her and show her what a loving forever home is like. In a nice gesture, L.A. Animal Control said they’ll drop the adoption fees for Roque when his Girl is ready to go home. [Happy Update: Roque officially adopted Girl on Oct. 19 and has renamed her Hera, after the Greek goddess.]
According to FOX 11, neighbors believe Girl had belonged to the man who tried to kill her. After he drove off, he returned to the neighborhood to look for her.
“I told him to pound sand, get out of here the cops, are on the way,” the neighbor told FOX 11. Wait, what? Why not ask him — or force him, if necessary — to stick around so he could be arrested and charged with animal cruelty?
Roque, on the other hand, wants the loser prosecuted. The first day it was posted, Oct. 12, the video was viewed over 5 million times. As of now, two days later, it has been viewed xx times.
Hopefully at least one of those millions of viewers will recognize this monster and do something about it..
“The Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control was shocked and horrified to see this video,” its director, Marcia Mayeda, said in a statement to FOX 11. “Animal cruelty is a serious crime, and the department is thoroughly investigating this case to identify the perpetrator and identify which criminal charges may be referred to the District Attorney’s office. We hope this individual will be identified by a FOX 11 viewer so we can complete our investigation and find justice for the beautiful, sweet dog.”
If you recognize this piece of garbage, please contact the East Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department at 323-264-4151 or the L.A. County Department of Animal Care and Control at 562-728-4882.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. You can opt-out if you wish.Got it!RejectPrivacy Policy
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
