There was plenty of finger-pointing when it came to determining a culprit for these dog deaths. As for Keystone Productions, PETA’s special projects coordinator on entertainment issues, Bob Chorush, told Deadline that the company had initially “misinformed” PETA, and then completely broke off communication. At least four have died already, and others likely will die in the next few days,” the letter said in part. “We have since learned that almost all the puppies, as many as 40 or 50, are now sick, many with the deadly parvovirus. In March of that year, PETA faxed a letter to Disney CEO Bob Iger demanding that he cancel the studio’s planned distribution of the movie.
#SANTA BUDDIES MOVIE#
But the controversy surrounding the movie was far from dying down. “All of the dogs in the production now have been checked and are being cared for by a veterinarian.” With the AHA’s blessing-if you could call it that, since it came after multiple paragraphs detailing the deaths of young canines- Snow Buddies finished filming. “The company producing Snow Buddies has complied with each request from American Humane and has made changes so that working puppies will not be put in any position where they may fall ill,” AHA wrote in a statement. Finally, filming was temporarily suspended. Having shipped away the first group of puppies-sick, but still living-production hired 28 new golden retrievers, who were all subsequently exposed to parvovirus. With PETA and AHA breathing down their neck, the network decided to buckle under the pressure.ĭisney would do no such thing with Snow Buddies. Though the show had been renewed for a second season immediately after it premiered, HBO had to change course. The thoroughbred’s death was the tipping point for Luck two horses had died before, and furthermore, the show had been accused of using horses that were elderly and injured, and allegedly sometimes even drugged. The cancelation came one day after a horse named Real Awesome Jet was euthanized after an on-set accident. In March of 2012, HBO’s prestige drama Luck, about a cast of characters tethered to a horseracing track in California, was canceled in the wake of animal rights violations. The death total rose to five when two other puppies perished. And then a bad situation got worse: three dogs were euthanized due to intestinal complications. With so many already exposed, the 30 puppies were removed from the set.
The production team behind Snow Buddies had, whether they realized it or not, basically fashioned their set into a death trap, and thrown a bunch of animals with underdeveloped immune systems into it. As many as six puppies fell ill to that particular virus. What’s worse, the lower mainland of Vancouver, where Snow Buddies was filming, had been experiencing an outbreak of parvovirus-another highly contagious virus that often preys on puppies-for at least six months before cameras started rolling. The AHA found that the Snow Buddies dogs were just six weeks old-in violation of the USDA’s Animal Welfare Act-making them extremely vulnerable to illness. Movies are generally required to only use dogs eight weeks or older, primarily because of the health complications that can arise if a puppy is separated from its mother earlier than that. Therein lied a huge problem, and signified just how gross Snow Buddies’ mismanagement of their animals was. But the behind the scenes story of the making of Snow Buddies is much darker than that, a tale of negligence and malfeasance in the thirst to expand profit margins and corner the dog movie market. It’s a valid entry in the Air Bud saga, a cute sequel to the first Air Buddies, and a reminder of the franchise’s better times, before things truly went off the rails with 2011’s Spooky Buddies. Those who are acquainted with the movie, who know that the titular Buddies are the offspring of the golden retriever who broke the animal barrier and set state records for high school basketball and football in Air Bud and Air Bud: Golden Receiver, probably think fondly of Snow Buddies. They probably don’t know that it’s a straight-to-DVD Disney movie about a group of talking puppies who set out to win an Alaskan dog sled race, let alone that it’s the seventh film in the Air Bud universe. And that’s how five puppies ended up dead during the filming of Snow Buddies.Ī lot of people probably don’t know what Snow Buddies is. The virus had already sunk its teeth into so many. Production tried to prevent impending disaster, quarantining those infected, giving them IV drips in between scenes. It was February in British Columbia, the perfect time and place to film exterior winter shots, but an environment that only helped the illness spread faster. The virus took hold of the set rather quickly.
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