The Plague Dogs

Two dogs escape from an animal testing laboratory in northern England. Rowf had been repeatedly drowned and revived; Snitter has had brain surgery and his perception is damaged. Outside they know neither how to hunt nor how to live. When they start killing sheep the farmers come after them. Then the press claims they may be carrying plague from the laboratory. The subject is not love of animals but responsibility belonging to nobody. The laboratory denies harm, the ministry manages the story, the journalist wants sales and the hunters are doing a job; nobody is evil and the two dogs are about to die anyway. The form is extremely harsh. The animation is drawn realistically, the landscapes are taken directly from the English Lake District, and the violence is softened nowhere. The ending is left uncertain and offers no comfort. The source is Richard Adams' novel. Martin Rosen had already filmed the same author's Watership Down. The film was shortened for American distribution with sections removed, and the long version only became available later. John Hurt voices Snitter. Who it is for: viewers who like adult animation and hard narratives about animal experimentation. Who it is not for: anyone planning to watch with children; this is not a cartoon and it is genuinely devastating.