Watching this movie made me feel sick

I used to love this movie as a kid - I watched it a million times over with my sister. But it was on TV the other day and as an adult I was little bit disturbed by some of the scenes that seemed quite dangerous/distressing for the animals.

I looked into it online and whilst I don't know if the reports of 20+ cats dying are true but I find it hard to believe that no animals died or were hurt - particularly having viewed the following scenes from the Japanese version:

1. A cat falling from a very high cliff into the ocean, struggling to climb back up said cliff only to tumble back into the water exhausted (the scene cut after that and honestly I couldn't see how the cat was going to get out of that one).

2. A dog being attacked by a young bear - the bear even pinned the dog down on a log, putting it's jaws around it's throat when again the scene was suspiciously cut (to a shot of an owl or all things).

A couple of people have claimed the bear was 'trained' and only 'playing' with the dog. I think these people may be living in a fantasy world. The bear was playing all right - only it was the same way a cat plays with a mouse before it eventually rips it's head off.

There's no solid proof of anything - and there never will be given those who made the English 'Milo & Otis' version probably don't even know themselves (working with second hand footage) but common sense suggests these animals went through hell.