Releasing on January 27th, A Dog’s Purpose didn’t look like it would be pushing the boundaries in dog-centric cinema, but it certainly seemed innocent enough. The story follows a dog, voiced by Josh Gad, who must find his purpose, and eventually reincarnate as another dog, with another purpose. Sort of like a canine Quantum Leap.

On January 18th, TMZ received a leaked video from a crew member on set. The scene they filmed appeared to feature the dog, now reincarnated as a German Shepherd, crossing a river. A scene that would have been incredibly difficult to film years ago, now could easily been done entirely in CGI.

The director, Lasse Hallström, instead chose to do a mostly practical scene, which would normally be applauded in the modern age of movies, instead created a situation that would most definitely be considered animal cruelty.

The footage shows a handler trying to coerce the dog into the rushing water. The owner of the camera says that water is warm, but that is of the least concern compared to the water’s rushing torrent. The German Shepherd eventually is shoved into the water, and rushed away to the edge of the set, where it is held under by the water, prompting the crew to halt filming and pull it out.

The following is the leaked video, and contains footage that may be considered disturbing.

The last significant instance of animal cruelty in film was thirty years ago in the production of The Adventures of Milo and Otis (1989), which followed the adventures of a kitten and pug puppy. Allegedly 20 kittens were killed in the process of filming, and the crew intentionally broke a kitten’s paw for one of the scenes.

It should also be noted that director Hallström was present on set for the entire filming of the scene.

Universal Pictures has responded to the leak, and released a statement to TMZ, “Fostering a safe environment and ensuring the ethical treatment of our animal actors was of the utmost importance to those involved in making this film and we will look into the circumstances surrounding this video.”

While animal cruelty shouldn’t be acceptable regardless of the century, it should certainly not be tolerated in the 21st. It may be too late to pull A Dog’s Purpose from wide release in theaters, hopefully Universal Pictures takes this situation very seriously, and those involved meet justice for their actions.