Grand Falls-Windsor theatre pulls screening of A Dog's Purpose
The only cinema in Grand Falls-Windsor is boycotting a Canadian film, after the publication of a video that purports to show mistreatment of an animal on set.
The Classic Theatre in Grand Falls-Windsor has cancelled all screenings of A Dog's Purpose, a Canadian film set for release on Jan. 27.
Owners Shawn and Jackie Feener told CBC Radio's Central Morning Show that they watched the controversial TMZ video, released on Wednesday. It shows a dog struggling against an animal trainer as he tries to push it into rapidly-moving water.
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"The dog is visibly terrified. They try several times to get him in the water, he does not want to go," Jackie Feener explains.
The theatre owner says she doesn't want to support, or profit from, animal mistreatment.
"We just decided from our own standpoint this is not anything that we would want to propagate on our screen," she said.
"That's not anything that we want to be a part of, and we certainly don't feel like making money on the backs of animals that may have been mistreated in the filming."
Animal rights groups like PETA have been calling for a boycott of the film, which was filmed in Manitoba in 2015.
The film follows the many lives of Bailey, a reincarnated dog.
Shawn Feener says the movie, and the controversy, hits close to home as his deceased dog was named Bailey as well.
"We're big time dog lovers, we've got two ourselves. We've got a rescue dog, home, too as well," he adds.
With files from Julia Cook, the Central Morning Show