Rebel Wilson's Show 'Pooch Perfect' Has Been Accused of Animal Abuse

If you've ever been interested in a competition series about dog grooming, then Rebel Wilson's show Pooch Perfect is what you've been waiting for. It pits 10 teams against each other to see who can come up with the most elaborate designs in their pups' fur. They're all competing for a $100,000 cash prize. 

Pooch Perfect looks like an adorable escape for animal lovers on the surface, but for a lot of people, it's nothing of the sort. Some groups, including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, better known as PETA, and some others who have watched the show have questioned whether the dogs on the show are properly cared for. 

From the very beginning of Pooch Perfect, it's been met with backlash. When it first premiered at the end of March 2021, fans took to social media to speculate what was going on with those pups. 

People watching the show couldn't believe that these dogs were being treated well. The whole point of the show is to create these over-the-top designs on these dogs. That means the dogs have to be still and on their feet for as long as necessary. If you know dogs, you know that staying still and calm doesn't come naturally to some.

One person tweeted, "You can’t convince me dogs like being poked, cut, bejeweled, and dressed up like this." Under that tweet, some agreed but others said that some dogs are completely OK with things like that. "Actually some do," one person said. "Not all dogs are geared for this, but there many that are."

Another person, who said they're a groomer, agreed that some dogs liked it and added that dogs "love attention." The grooming doesn't hurt them, and the products these groomers use are safe for dogs.

PETA spoke out against Pooch Perfect. The organization had a lot to say after the show's first episode premiered. "Dogs trust us to keep them safe, but shows like Pooch Perfect can encourage people to treat them as if they were things to decorate, like a ceramic pot, giving them dangerous at-home dye jobs, which not only carry the risk of an allergic reaction or fatal toxic poisoning but also stress them out," PETA said in a statement, per The New York Post. 

"The dogs used on this show aren’t things but beings, and they deserve to curl up at home with a loving guardian — instead of having to put up with being leashed to a countertop and painted and prodded by strangers for hours on end."

Michael Levitt, a producer on the 2020 American Rescue Dog Show, also spoke out against the show on Twitter. "Dogs are not props for entertainment," he wrote. "The dogs look miserable and it feels cruel. I’m shocked @ABCNetwork was so tone-deaf in greenlighting this series."