OMG, he shot the dog, why? What was wrong with the poor animal? 😞 I don't like when a movie pictures violence against animals, I am serious, I stopped watching "Snatch" after the dog fighting scene and I really wanted to see that movie! :(
shareLook up "rabies" in the dictionary.
shareHe had rabies? how do you know? I've never seen a dog with rabies before, there are vaccines against it...
shareIt was very obviously implied that it had rabies (stray dog, jumping up and down, looking very unhealthy, treated as a threat).
I'm not sure about the treatment of rabies, but from what I've heard I'm fairly certain that it cannot be cured. The death rate is 100 %. Vaccines only work before any symptoms show up, at least in humans. So the dog was properly screwed either way.
Also, have you seen what rabies does to people? Look it up, there are videos on youtube. It's one of the scariest things I've ever seen.
I know what rabies does to people, but I thought it was assymptomatic in dogs that's why I asked what was wrong with him.
In humans they give you the vaccine but it only works if you go straight to the doctor right after you were bitten. In dogs I am not sure, but there is a preventive vaccine to keep them from catching it. My dogs have that vaccine. Where I live, every year the local public vet does a campaign in each locality where the vaccines are cheaper than when you go to a private vet. They do it because rabies is a matter or public health, so not only it's good for the dog to have a vaccine, it is also important to prevent human cases.
I was just shocked because they actually showed the dog falling after the gunshot.. usually in movies they never show details of it. For example when Frank of "House of Cards" killed his neighbour dog you could only ear the dog crying implying that he was stranguled, you didn't actually see the guy stranguling him.
The symptoms in dogs are staggering, drooling (due to inability to swallow properly) and acting weird. In fact, in the movie, Calpurnia tells Atticus "there's a mad dog down the street." The word "mad" is often used in describing animals afflicted with rabies -- the virus attacks the neurological system and animals behave in a "mad" or "crazy" manner.
I don't think there was a vaccine for it in the thirties; and even if there had been, most people would not have been able to pay for it in the middle of the depression. They would have taken the chance; and if the dog caught rabies, they would just shoot it.
I, too, think it's disturbing to watch scenes of animals dying; and I can't promise this for sure, but I don't think they really killed the dog.
And Atticus warns the children to stay away from the dead dog -- rabies could still be transmitted if the dog's body is not handled carefully.
In "Old Yeller," the story of a loyal family dog, the dog defends the boy when a rabid wolf attacks. The wolf bites the dog, and the dog then has to be shot.
"Mad dog" = term for dog with rabies
shareRabies is not asymptomatic in dogs. Some on here have said that when the dog is shot, you can see a string tied to it's rear leg and the leg is pulled bringing the dog down. The gunshot was most likely added in post production. Watch the movie "Turner and Hooch" and also "K-9. In both movies you see someone shot the dog and you see the dog fall down. Quite possibly in this movie, the scene leading up to Atticus shooting the dog were film and then the dog falling were film and the two scenes were put together. The gunshot sound effect was added after.
shareWell, the maid actually does tell Atticus there's "a mad dog"coming down the street. And in this case, "mad" does not mean "angry", but crazy, which is a symptom of the disease.
~ I'm not arguing, I'm just explaining why I'm right! ~
It wasn't 'implied' - it was stated point blank. They said explicitly that the dog was rabid.
shareVaccination? Once an animal has full-blown rabies ... THEY ARE Fed.
shareOP: Well, I knew the dog had rabies because the maid told Atticus there's "a mad dog" coming down the street. Therefore, the dog was rabid.
I don't think there was a vaccine for rabies in the 1930's. And let's be serious here, if you saw a rabid dog coming down your street in a small town in the rural South during the Great Depression, would you actually be foolish enough to try to catch it?!?
~ I'm not arguing, I'm just explaining why I'm right! ~
The dog had rabies. It was sick, going to die anyway, and was dangerous. If it bit a human, which it would have done if any human had gotten too close to it, that would mean certain death for the human. Even today tens of thousands of people still die of rabies every year, mostly in poor and underdeveloped countries. In more developed countries like the US, treatment and prevention is now affordable and easily available and a lot of progress has been made toward reducing the risk of rabies to humans. Dogs, one of the principal carriers for rabies, are now widely vaccinated against it, although it continues to be common among wild animals including bats and raccoons. But this movie is set in a rural area of the deep south of the US (which even today has a level of economic development and living standards comparable with Central America and sub-Saharan Africa) during the Depression in the 1930s. Treatment for rabies was likely unaffordable or unavailable. All this is why they had to shoot the dog. There wasn't a choice in the matter; the dog was a public health hazard. Besides, even putting aside the risk it posed to humans and to other animals, the dog itself had to be put out of its misery.
You should watch the movie "Cujo".
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Of course the dog wasn't really killed. There were no bullets in the rifle. This is only a movie, pretend, make believe. You need to calm down and remember that.
shareTHANK YOU! Are we the only ones that got that she meant the dog in the movie, and why did they show it. Everyone else is talking about symptoms, etc. and how do we know about THAT dog having rabies, using the book's words and the other people watching. I have no idea if they drugged the dog or how they got that performance. It was really amazingly done.
I love Jesus, but I drink a little...
Do you mind me asking how old you are ?
shareGood Lord, it was rabid.
Sheese.
http://i.imgur.com/Zr8amSl.jpg
The dog was a significant symbol in the book - the rabies represented the evil of racism that existed in the people of the town. Atticus shooting the (dying, diseased, suffering) dog represented him protecting the people of the town from rabies. Symbolically Atticus protects the town in a broader sense, as a fair and unbiased lawyer, from becoming morally diseased from racism.
shareThe dog was deemed a threat to the neighborhood, which is why it had to be put down. But, you can clearly see in the film that there is a string tied to the dog's leg that they jerked when Atticus "shot" the animal so that it would go down, so it's not like the animal was actually hurt.
Oh no! No more Bee Gees! How will I be able to stay alive, stay alive?!-Whose Line Is It Anyway?
yeah i was like no youre not gonna shoot it are you?
but i read online that you can apparently see someone pull a string on the dogs leg when he is "shot" so they didnt do it for real even though its very uneven to see the scene itself