The producers of a Chinese science fiction movie called Crazy Alien are being accused of animal abuse toward a German Shepherd who was appearing in the film. The movie stars Matthew Morrison, who played Will Schuester on the show Glee, however he was not on set when the alleged abuse occurred.
According to PEOPLE, an unidentified whistleblower contacted PETA in hopes that they could take action on the incident. On their blog, PETA reports:
“In a log of the incident, the whistleblower states, ‘On November 28th, 2017, I witnessed first hand one of the worst animal cruelty acts I have ever seen.’ The alarming report describes how the handler first tormented the dog ‘into a frenzy’ for a scene in order to get the terrified animal to bark as loudly as possible.
For the next scene, the dog was reportedly locked inside a ‘small (4W x 3T x 7L) solid metal wire cage’ that was lifted by a crane into the air: ‘The second the dog cage rose into the air, the dog stopped barking instantly as the cables were used to spin the cage out of control in circles before solidly landing 40–50 feet away. The director took many takes and this was just awful to witness as the torment went on.'”
The whistleblower’s statement continues:
“The next shot was at the river’s edge where the dog was put back into his cage and tormented into a frenzy once again. This time … the cage … was hoisted 20 ft. and was flung while spinning out of control towards the river. … [T]he cage was completely submerged with the dog in it landing in a 10 mph current. After 5–8 seconds, the director yelled out ‘cut.’ … A final decision was made by the director to shoot a second identical take. I could not believe my eyes.”
According to PETA, the whistleblower explained that these horrible incidents occurred multiple times for multiple takes.
There is leaked footage of the alleged abuse, but we have chosen not to include it in this article because some may find it disturbing. However, anyone who wishes to judge it for themselves can view it on YouTube by clicking here.
After the allegations became known, Morrison took to Twitter to address the incident with his fans:
I’ve just been made aware and seen a video from the set of a film I worked on in China. My heart is broken to see any animal treated this way. Had I been on set or known about this, I would have made all efforts to stop this. I’ve called the producers to express my outrage.
— Matthew Morrison (@Matt_Morrison) March 16, 2018
PETA noted on their blog that the sci-fi movie made use of special effects, so there was truly no reason to put a live animal through such torment — why didn’t they just use a computer animated dog? They also suggested a call to action:
“PETA is urging the actors to hold the production accountable and calling for the public to boycott this film. This scene should be cut, and Ning should commit to never working with live animals again. We’re asking that the cast—including Glee actor Matthew Morrison—donate their salaries to animal-protection charities in China.”
Animal cruelty is always needless and should never be employed as a means of entertainment. PETA had some good suggestions as to how the cast and public can demonstrate their disapproval – what do you think the next course of action should be?
