discovered that the lemming scene was actually filmed at the Bow River near Canmore, Alberta, and further that the same small group of lemmings was transported to the location, jostled on turntables, and repeatedly shoved off a cliff to imply mass suicide.
this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2025
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TIL Disney killed a bunch of puppies making "Snow Buddies" and weren't allowed to use the "no animals were harmed" claim
(lemmy.dbzer0.com)
Fixed link https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Wilderness_(film)#Controversy
Boy, markdown + deep links is not a good combination.
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No, animals were harmed in the making of this film.
Parvovirus is a puppy owners worst nightmare. It's kind of puppy ebola but super contagious and high mortality rate.
Typically puppy owners never accept a puppy younger than 8 weeks without their first vaccination. And don't let them go out in places exposed to other unknown dogs until after the second vaccination at 16 weeks. So those early weeks should be spent with other vaccinated puppies to socialise them. And if you are going out, carry them or put them in a cart, or take them places you know no sick dogs have been within a year.
Yet another reason why raising puppies is so much harder than people think.
Yeah, parvo specifically attacks multiplying cells. It’s not super bad for fully grown dogs, which only multiply cells to maintain a baseline. But for puppies that are actively growing, it basically causes them to fall apart at the seams. Their bone marrow and intestinal lining basically turns to mush, since they’re almost entirely made of multiplying cells.
image of text
no link to source or actual text
pointlessly breaking the web & accessibility
Does OP know about this alternative to images of text called text? 🤦
Hoooooly shit I knew productions with animals were usually darker than they seem but Snow Buddies???? Snow Buddies was built on the back of mass puppy casualty???
Go watch Milo and Otis again. Holy shit. They through a fucking kitten off a cliff.
After doing some wtf research, the thing was filmed in China. Those poor kittens and puppies.
*Threw
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/animals-abused-milo-and-otis/
That was a rumor, and has never been verified despite decades of discussion and many attempts to prove or disprove it. Also, it was filmed in Japan, not China.
I loved that movie growing up and had my own copy. And then as an adult I learnt about that dark, dark history.
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Here comes the dog, strong and brave, WOOF!
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Werner Herzog boiled 11000 living rats in ink for Nosferatu.
Dutch behavioral biologist Maarten 't Hart, hired by Herzog for his expertise with laboratory rats, revealed that, after witnessing the inhumane way in which the rats were treated, he no longer wished to cooperate. Apart from traveling conditions that were so poor that the rats, imported from Hungary, had started to eat each other upon arrival in the Netherlands, Herzog insisted the plain white rats be dyed gray. To do so, according to 't Hart, the cages containing the rats needed to be submerged in boiling water for several seconds, causing another half of them to die. The surviving rats proceeded to lick themselves clean of the dye immediately, as 't Hart had predicted they would.
Holy shit.
At what point do you just buy gray rats? Where in the cost benefit analysis does boiling rats in ink come in?
I guess when buying 11000 rats you are somewhat constrained in your choice of color. It's not like you can order them made in a custom color.
It's not like they needed all 11000 of them. Half of them died from being submerged in boiling dye... Surely, it would have been easier with half a magnitude smaller quantity.
Half of them died from being submerged in boiling dye
I'm surprised that half of them survived. Aside, that is cartoonishly evil.
Goddamn
I previously kinda liked Hertzog (he was amusing to listen to if nothing else), not any more.
How do you boil 11,000 rats alive and then go on and make 10 minute long thinkpieces about the profound sadness of the death of a single penguin that leaves its flock? What a fucking masturbatory asshat.
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If you want to see more animal endangerment check out Milo & Otis.
They legit threw a cat off a cliff into the ocean for it.
I used to love that movie until one night as a small child, something just snapped in me and I ran into my mom's room bawling my eyes out. I couldn't explain why at that age, but the movie felt so wrong from that point forward.
I hate all animal cruelty but shit against cats makes me the angriest. What the fuck is wrong with people? These creatures love and trust us and we treat them in terrible ways.
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In a movie from 2008, so it wasn't that long ago. You'd think they would have known better by then. Another reminder to boycott Disney.
Known better? Probably.
Cared better? Absolutely not.
Imagine the caliber of person it takes to neglect a golden retriever to death.
tldr: they were too young, a bunch got parvovirus and didn't make it
Addendum:
They were too young and a bunch were sick, they were forced to get older puppies, who then also got sick.
They fucked up, got told they fucked up, then fucked up again.
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Transcription
An American Humane Certified Safety Representative visited the Snow Buddies set on the first day of filming. Fifteen Golden Retriever puppies were on set and fifteen other were being treated by a local veterinarian, and their illnesses were eventually diagnosed as Giardia and Coccidia. On request from the representative the remaining puppies on set received additional veterinary checks. Twenty-five of the puppies were from an American breeder and five were from a Canadian breeder. It was discovered that the puppies were approximately 8 weeks old, which lead to the belief that the puppies were only 6 weeks old when they were brought by the trainer to the movie set. Per the USDA it was at the time illegal to transport puppies under the age of 8 weeks.
After the removal of all 30 puppies, 28 older Golden Retriever puppies were brought in to continue filming. All of the 28 older puppies were exposed to parvovirus. Five of the puppies died, and up to six others fell ill after exposure to the virus.
As a result, the film was not permitted to use the "No animals were harmed..." disclaimer and received an "Unacceptable" marking from the American Humane Association.
I have never heard of this movie or the whole franchise (did some searching) before. It's not even something I have seen anything about and wasn't interested, I've literally never seen or heard anything about any of this. But I'm not surprised, nothing as big as Disney exists without many skeletons in the closet. Haven't given them any money since I was a teenager, and that won't ever change.
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Well, I could have gone my whole life not knowing this. :(
If you're shocked by capital murdering puppies, wait until you find out about the animal torture/murder industry, enslaved labor, etc.
The puppies are just the tip of the meatberg.
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hahah holy fuck, man. was not expecting to see that when I first opened up Lemmy
I can’t even imagine the kind of person you have to be to actually let this movie get published about a bunch of cute little puppy dogs if you had the power to stop it and you knew what happened.
This is the same company that, 60 years ago, built a turntable to throw lemmings off the edge of a cliff for a "nature documentary" since they weren't jumping over on their own.
Lemmings do not actually commit suicide in nature...
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What's the conventional wisdom as to why this is so bad, but eating meat basically gets a pass? Like, meat offers sustenance, yes, but it's by no means required. So basically, humans eat meat because it tastes really good
it's great "culinary entertainment."
This is a different kind of entertainment, but it's deeply offensive to many folks. I'm not trying to be a dick about it, just curious why this is seen as such a sin.
Is it that these animals weren't "supposed" to be killed? Would a movie about a beef cow who ends up getting slaughtered, both onscreen and IRL, be seen as better? Worse?
I think because of
1.the chasm between the intended discourse of the film (feelgood movie with puppies going on adventures) and the alleged means to film it, feels particularly cynical and dishonest
2.the fact that dogs are companions -they have co-evolved next to humans for about 15 thousand years and hold a special place, contrary to animals typically consumed for their flesh
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I suppose if I had a cow living in my home with me that would be a problem. It's familiarity.
And puppies
Broadly, people are not ok with animals being mistreated. An animal that is raised in safe, comfortable conditions and then killed painlessly is not mistreated by the standards of many people.
Abusing a puppy and kitten to make a film is absolutely mistreatment, hence the different reaction.
I'm not trying to be a dick about it
Doubt. "Just asking questions" is so often a deliberate dick move.
safe, comfortable conditions and then killed painlessly
Do you even think this is real
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