MovieChat Forums > Year of the Dog (2007) Discussion > Who thinks Peggy was just as responsible...

Who thinks Peggy was just as responsible for her dog's death as Al?

posted 18 years ago by JC_Aliss
22 replies | jump to latest

This point was brought up by the person I saw this film with. It hadn't occurred to me, but I thought he made a good point (he's a dog lover himself and his dog is his baby!)

He felt that Peggy's disgusted "fine, then just STAY out there" when Pencil didn't want to come in that night was irresponsible. She left the dog outside, in the dark, unleashed and unsupervised (what IS IT with people being so incapable of hooking a long leash out in the yard somewhere? I had a dog for YEARS that was NEVER unleashed outside, even ONCE. You can't trust a fence alone, people!) Heck, she even SAW HIM run outside the fence and away, yet she went inside annoyed and shut the door.

Her anger at Al was a bit misdirected. She discovered that the dog had gotten into his garage and chewed at the bag of poison. Okay, so it's not like Pencil ate it right out of the soil in HER yard. Al had the poison packed away in his private property, and his garage door was open but that was HIS business, careless, sure, but it's not like he intentionally bated the dog. It's not illegal to have those poisons stored in the garage of one's own property.

Does anyone think in any way that Peggy had ANY guilt for what happened to the dog? It would have been nice to see them explore that a bit.

[–] lakealice 12 years ago

The dog was shown a couple of times digging and rooting in the flower bed. I assume it was on the border with the neighbor's property, and the neighbor had put slug bait on that flower bed. I think that is what killed the dog. The dog might have gotten at the bag of bait also if it was left in plain sight in the garage that night. The neighbor might have hidden the bag in an inaccessible place in his garage later when he found it had been chewed into. He might not have even realized that the dog had chewed it--it could have been a mouse or chipmunk. Even so, he was responsible for putting poison out in the yard where a nighbor's dog could get at it.

I should add that I really enjoyed this movie--good performances!

[–] swinggold 12 years ago

Are you crazy? That's his property. He has no obligation to look out for unsupervised or stray pets. She would lose if she took him to court over it.