PG-Rated Show Dogs Removes Scenes After Parent Backlash

Movie mishandled message on unwanted touching, say its critics
By Janet Cromley,  Newser Staff
Posted May 23, 2018 8:55 PM CDT
PG-Rated Show Dogs Removes Scenes After Parent Backlash
A screen shot from the movie.   (YouTube)

Global Road Entertainment has announced that it is re-editing the film Show Dogs to delete two scenes that parents and others said portrayed sexual abuse followed by inappropriate handling of the abuse, reports USA Today. In both scenes, a Rottweiler named Max has his testicles inspected by dog show judges, which is standard at a dog show. The parents’ main issue was with the way Max was told by another dog to handle the uncomfortable inspection by going to his “Zen place.” As one parent in Arizona wrote on the family-friendly website Macaroni Kid: “The day of the finals comes and if Max doesn’t let his private parts be touched, he may lose the competition,” Terina Maldonado wrote. “It all rests on his ability to let someone touch his private parts,” and pretend it wasn't happening.

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation agreed with the parents and said in a statement that Show Dogs includes scenes that normalize "unwanted genital touching to its child audience," reports CNN, and sends a troubling message “that grooms children for sexual abuse.” Global Road Entertainment apologized for the deleted scenes in a statement to Deadline: “The company takes these matters very seriously and remains committed to providing quality entertainment for the intended audiences based on the film’s rating.” The revised version of the film will be released this weekend. In the PG-rated film, Ludacris (who voices Max) and Will Arnett, as Max’s human partner, are undercover officers who must infiltrate a dog show in order to crack the case of a kidnapped panda. (More dogs stories.)

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