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 should die while making a movie, and that includes animal actors. Unfortunately, it can still happen. In fact, one particularly horrifying case of on-set animal abuse occurred during production on the seemingly adorable 2008 movie "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 who can play basketball and later moves on to other sports, like a four-legged early 2000s Michael Jordan. ("Air Bud" was 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, several puppies died and dozens more were exposed to a deadly virus during the making of the film.

According to a 2007 report from Deadline, People For The Ethical Treatment of Animals (which is better known as PETA) determined that 25 "underage" Golden Retriever puppies had been shipped from an unlicensed New York breeder to the Vancouver set of "Snow Buddies." Once there, it seems that 15 of those puppies fell ill with giardia and coccidia, with two of them being subsequently euthanized. As if that wasn't enough, low temperatures contributed to a parvovirus outbreak among all the puppies on set. (The canine parvovirus, for those unaware, can cause severe gastrointestinal problems.)

Eventually, PETA tried to stop the 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 movie's 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. Moreover, the real-life icy temperatures on the film's set weren't good for the puppies in general. In a 2007 statement, the American Humane Society (which was going by the American Humane Association at the time) confirmed it had launched an investigation after five puppies had died on the movie's set in total. By that point, 28 puppies were being treated after being exposed to parvovirus during production. You'd think that would be enough to get Disney to scrap the film entirely, but that wasn't the case. Instead, it temporarily put the production on hold so the dogs could be nursed back to health before filming resumed.

Ultimately, "Snow Buddies" was released, although PETA and the American Humane 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 offscreen as well.