A Dog’s Purpose is a film about a devoted dog that discovers the meaning of its own existence through the lives of the humans it teaches to laugh and love. On January 18, a video surfaced on TMZ showing footage of the German Shepherd named Hercules being dragged and dipped into rushing water while visibly resisting.

A Dog’s Purpose hit theaters making more than 25 million on opening week and was supposed to have a strong debut until the animal abuse incident happened. After the cut in the video, the next clip shows the dog being submerged in the water at the end of the tank while voices on set can be heard saying “cut it”. Many people are seen rushing towards the dog who appears  to be drowning.

The American Humane Association ensures that animals are not harmed in entertainment productions. PETA called for a boycott of the film. Actor, Josh Gad who was not on set during the making of the movie, claimed he was “shaken and sad to see any animal put in a situation against its will”

“A Dog’s Purpose will more than likely not get any Oscars due to the animal abuse,” Michael Pochron, a senior said.

Producer Gavin Polone wrote in an editorial for The Hollywood Reporter, “Last Thursday, I went to Amblin’s office and watched all the film shot on the day in question, as well as saw video from the trainers and still photographs. 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.”

The dog trainer should have stopped trying to get the dog into the water as soon as the dog seemed uncomfortable. The trainers should have had support under the dog as soon as he came to the side of the pool or even just had less turbulence in the water so he never would have gone under.

“It was heart breaking to watch a German Shepard get abused like that knowing I have one back home that I love dearly”, said senior Hayley Palone,  

Hercules was said to be okay and due to the release of the video, Universal Pictures cancelled the film’s scheduled January 19 Los Angeles premiere.