Animal abuse accusations are beginning to resurface for renowned celebrity dog trainer Cesar Millan. He became found through his celebrity clients and his show, “Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan: “
On his Instagram page, Millan, in collaboration with his Cesar Millan’s Training Programs page, uploaded a clip of himself showing a young woman the inappropriate way to hold your dog on a leash.
In the video, posted on Oct. 12. he and the lady watch off to the side as two other individuals attempt to walk past each other with their dogs on leashes. One of the individuals was pulling the leash back to keep the dog from lunging at the other, but Milan says that was an incorrect move.
He said, “This situation is very serious . The way Caitlin is pulling on the leash it makes Liam very aggressive. I need to show Caitlin how to get control of her dog before someone gets hurt.”
And while some were strictly reacting to the video, there was one person in particular who sought to remind fans of Millan’s alleged abusive past with animals.
They wrote, “Anyone asking advice here shouldnt. Cesar is known for abusing animals.”
But, as it seems, Millan was not fazed by this person. In fact he wrote them back saying, “Listen I’ll still going to send to you” to which the commenter responded, “same to you.”
When one person asked the man for evidence, he said, “That’s a great question! Always good to ask for proof before blindly excepting things,” before sharing at least six links to articles, Reddit threads, and YouTube videos that further explore the accusation of animal cruelty against Millan.
“In almost every video he has back on his old show, you can see him sort of punching/hitting the dogs nerve points and/or the area where the dog’s organs are. His dog has killed another dog as well as attacked a person,” the person began.
“Abusing animals by hitting, kicking, fear flooding, and striking pressure points does nothing except 1. shut the dog down 2. suppress those bad behaviours caused by fear until they resurface. They resurface because the issue was never solved, but instead abusing the dog into shutting down and becoming so fearful they just let you do whatever… until they dont.”
The individual concluded, “I highly suggest looking into this more yourself. It appears nearly all of the videos of him abusing dogs have been taken down off youtube, probably for abuse or ‘defamation.’”
In March 2016, Millan was under investigation for animal cruelty after a training session with a dog went wrong. The incident, which was captured and aired on Millan’s show “Dog Whisperer,” shows him attempting to teach a dog to stop attacking its owners pigs as it’s done previously.
He brought a pig to the session and the dog ran after the pig, biting it on its ear and causing it to bleed. The episode enraged viewers enough for them to send tips to animal welfare officials, which sparked an investigation.
By the following month, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office concluded that there was “insufficient evidence” and that Millan’s “methods are safe and humane.”
The episode influenced 10,000 people to sign a petition claiming that Millan’s methods were inhumane. Other animal professionals also chimed in criticizing Millan’s behavioral training methods.
Four years prior to the incident with the dog and pig, a video shows Millan attempting to calm down a dog he was training. As the dog lunges at Millan barking and seemingly attempting to bite as well, Millan begins to tug upward at the leash.
This led to animal biologist Marc Bekoff to publish an article titled “Did Cesar Millan Have to Hang the Husky?” where he wrote a lengthy article criticizing Millan’s methods.
He said, “This treatment of a sentient being named Shadow sickened me and I soon discovered that many others also were horrified by this so-called ‘training’ session.”
Dr. Nicholas Dodman, head of the Animal Behavior Department of Clinical Sciences at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, has also denounced Millan’s treatment of the animals he trains.
He said, “Cesar Millan’s methods are based on flooding and punishment. The results, though immediate, will be only transitory. His methods are misguided, outmoded, in some cases dangerous, and often inhumane. You would not want to be a dog under his sphere of influence. The sad thing is that the public does not recognize the error of his ways. My college thinks it is a travesty. We’ve written to National Geographic Channel and told them they have put dog training back 20 years.”
Millan arrived in the United States from Mexico in 1990 to become a dog trainer. During one of his demonstrations at a party, Jada Pinkett Smith was in attendance, and the two became friends when Millan began to train her dog.
Years later, Millan confided in Pinkett Smith about his dreams of being on television. During his visit to “The Adam Carolla Show” he said Pinkett Smith responded, “‘Well, for that you need to speak English.’ So she paid a teacher for me to learn English for a year.”
He went on to achieve his dreams in 2004 when his show “Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan” debuted on the National Geographic Channel.
