DOG LOVER and Hollywood star Dennis Quaid has hit out at activists and accused them of faking an animal cruelty video.
He said a film claiming to show a dog being abused in his new movie was faked simply to create a sensational news story.
Peta later seized on the footage to call for a boycott of his film A Dog’s Purpose and it lead to the premiere being cancelled.
The footage claimed to show a German Shepherd dog being forced into a fast-flowing river and going under the surface during filming.
It is understood to have been sold to celebrity web side TMZ.
Peta called for the film to be boycotted after it went online two weeks before the premier.
Director Lasse Hallström was called an animal abuser on social media and the studio then cancelled the premiere over fears activists would target the event.
Now Quaid, 63, has now said the video was faked for money by selling it to TMZ just before the release of the movie.
He added that as a dog lover he would not have been involved in the film if the claims were true.
He said: “Somebody with their phone camera took some footage and re-edited it to make it look like the dog was really in peril, and being abused, which was far from the truth.
“There was an investigation, and it found nothing wrong.
“I saw all of the footage and it’s a completely different story.
“If they were so concerned about safety why didn’t they come out with the story then?
“Why did they wait nine months? So they could get some money from TMZ?”
In the video it looks as if the dog was being dangled in the water.
In fact Quaid revealed that was not the case.
He added: “There is actually a platform under the water which the dog is standing on.”
“Everything else, like for instance when he was supposedly being swept down and drowning, was far from the case. “There were two divers with scuba gear.
“What happened on that particular take was that the dog got out of the water, shook himself off, and then ran around the other side of the pool to jump in again.
“I wouldn’t be here right now if I believed animals were being abused on that set.”
The film tells the story of a golden retriever called Bailey and his reincarnation through four dog breeds, telling his life story each time round.
Quaid is a Hollywood A lister with a string of hit movies under his belt including 1Breaking Away in 1979.
In the 1980s he made a number of films including The Big Easy and Innerspace, and he also played Jerry Lee Lewis in Innerspace!
