Pedigree chums: why the movies are killing off fewer dogs — SkimNews
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- Lassie (pet insurance firm) reported dog deaths in the 100 highest-grossing films fell 80% between 2020 and 2025
- Films featuring a canine death dropped from 10 of the top 100 in 2020 to just 2 in 2025, per the Lassie study
- The website Does the Dog Die? exists solely to warn viewers about animal fatalities in films, highlighting audience sensitivity
- Richard Raymond, producer of Brad Pitt's film Heart of the Beast, tweeted spoilers in June to confirm "the dog does not die"
- Anne Hathaway, promoting The End of Oak Street, publicly argued that "movies that kill dogs should automatically be rated R"
- Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey features what the piece calls a gratuitous, "slapstick-bordered" dog death where a puppy is hurled off a cliff
Why it matters: The data comes from a pet insurance company with a commercial interest in animal welfare messaging, and the article's framing — that cinema once normalized dog deaths in films like Turner & Hooch and Mad Max 2 — suggests Hollywood is now weighing box-office risk against a once-standard storytelling tool, with filmmakers and stars publicly pre-empting audience backlash before release.
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