My Life, Made Possible By Pop Culture

We all coo over just how precious and cute the animals are that we see in our favorite movies or television shows.  How many of us grew up begging our parents for dogs just like Lassie or Comet from Full House?  But how often do we stop to think about those working dogs behind the on-screen persona and what they go through to bring us an hour or two of enjoyment?

Le Paws Agency, one of the leading in animal talent and as featured on such shows as MTV’s Rob & Big, prides themselves on the discipline of their talent, but in reality, the dogs and cats are simply kept in crates—small, cramped, metal boxes—until the moment action is called.  The dogs and cats spend their days in the solitude of their trainer’s van or in a distant corner of the set, aware of all of the people inside but not allowed to play or even get petted.  At times, like on the set of I Am Legend, it is so the animal doesn’t bond with anyone but its scene partner, but more often than not, it is just to keep them from being underfoot and distracting crewmembers.

The animals are brought onto set to perform their tricks promptly and adequately, and then they are ushered just as quickly back into their crates.  Sure, they’ll get a piece of a treat or cookie when they nail their mark, but the stern “good job” is far from the love and affection an owner would show them at home.  They are treated more like walking, barking props than animals with feelings.

Sure, animals are sometimes needed in films just to represent life.  How weird would it be to show a park and not show someone walking a dog, or set a scene on a farm and not see pigs or chickens wandering about?  And yes, even though CGI has come along way in creating realistic animals, they are still just a bit robotic and creepy—not unlike those Webkinz that are fast replacing real first pets in many child-filled households.  However, working animals tend to have a shorter lifespan than the average dog or cat or horse or monkey.  Part of this must be due to the stress of having to perform and not really understanding why it’s so important they have to walk to a specific place or jump at a specific time.  And the harder the trick, the more stress it must cause.  Animals are just like people: sometimes they don’t feel like doing something, but when you have an animal on-set, getting paid to do something specific, stubbornness or refusal is not taken for an answer. And once the animal realizes no one is fooling around, they very quickly lose their happy-go-lucky “I just want to play” attitude; they even often stop wagging their tails.  Their new serious demeanor ages them by taking much of the fun out of their lives.

Part of a working animal’s shortened lifespan probably also comes from their environment, which can in no way be called “normal.”  Just like how child actors grow up fast, so do working animals age quicker.  And for a dog, for example, where one year really equals seven, one year maintaining the rigorous and erratic schedule of film production must feel like fifteen.  The trainers and handlers on-set are supposed to be there to protect the working animals’ best interest, but how do we know they wont ignore signs of fatigue when the idea of overtime causes their eyes to turn into dollar signs?

While some of the tricks we see animals perform definitely inspire the “how’d they get them to do that?” audible gasp, more times than not, an animal is in a scene merely to tug at the audience’s heartstrings.  Anytime an animal is in a horror movie, for example, like the tiny Maltese in Urban Legend, it is clear it is not going to end well for the animal (fake as it may be), and it is merely a cheap ploy to get the audience more emotionally invested.  Let’s force the filmmakers to use their creative muscles a little bit more and stop taking the animals so for granted.

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