Disney's Air Bud Spin-Off Has A Disturbing Behind-The-Scenes Story That Will Haunt You

Does the dog die? Yeah, any sensitive puppy-lovers might want to sit this one out. 

No one deserves to die to make a movie, and that includes animal actors, but unfortunately, it can still happen. In fact, one particularly horrifying case of on-set animal abuse occurred in 2007 during production on the seemingly adorable "Snow Buddies." The film, for those who are not familiar, is a spin-off of the soon-to-be-rebooted "Air Bud" movie series, itself a property that centers on Buddy: a Golden Retriever that can play basketball and later moves on to other sports, like a four-legged early 2000s Michael Jordan. ("Air Bud" was also nearly titled "Buddy," as it happens.) On its face, "Snow Buddies" is a serviceable, cute addition to the franchise about some of Buddy's puppies — who, as its title suggests, have snow sport skills. Behind the scenes, however, five puppies died and dozens more were exposed to a deadly virus during the making of the film.

Here's what happened (as reported on by Deadline in 2007): After 25 young puppies were shipped from a New York breeder across the U.S. and then taken up to the Vancouver set of "Snow Buddies," veterinarians discovered that a number of the puppies were ill with giardia and coccidia and should never have made the journey. What's worse, a parvovirus outbreak in the Vancouver area, and the low temperatures on the movie's set were basically a puppy death trap, leading to five euthanized pups and many more who became very sick. Eventually, PETA got involved and tried to get Disney to stop release of the straight-to-home-media film, but to no avail. Look, I love a ridiculous kids movie about dogs who play sports as much as the next person, but not if the dogs actually die.

In "Snow Buddies," the Golden Retriever pups set out to try and win a sled dog race, which isn't really something that their breed is meant to do, and the real-life icy temperatures definitely weren't good for the tiny puppies. 30 puppies had to be removed from the film's set due to their exposure to the canine parvovirus, which is a potentially deadly virus that causes severe gastrointestinal problems. It's horrific to experience, and three puppies had to be euthanized due to severe gastrointestinal complications. With the death toll up to five puppies, you would think that Disney might shut the whole thing down, but instead it had 28 more Golden Retriever puppies shipped in. Eventually, the production ceased until the dogs could be nursed back to health before resuming.

Eventually, "Snow Buddies" was released, although PETA and the American Human Association both condemned the project. As mentioned, it went straight to the home media market and was pretty much forgotten, and the whole thing is a real shame, given the loss of life involved. Thankfully, however, there are plenty of great movies out there where the dog doesn't die onscreen and they were taken care of well offscreen to watch instead.