Pirates of Caribbean hero John Depp's terriers in trouble !

‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ is a series of fantasy swashbuckler films produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and based on Walt Disney's theme park ride of the same name. The films take place in a fictional historical setting; a world ruled largely by an amalgam of alternative versions of the British Empire and the East India Company, with the pirates representing freedom from the ruling powers.  

The fifth instalment of the Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise is being  filmed in Queensland.  Initial reports suggested that the Federal Government spent $21.6 million to secure the Walt Disney Studios production,  and the Queensland Government also offered an incentive package that included payroll tax concessions, although it would not reveal the total cost. Queensland beat out several other Australian states and Mexico to host the film.

Small in size but big in personality, the Yorkshire Terrier makes a feisty but loving companion. The most popular toy dog breed in the U.S., the "Yorkie" has won many fans with his devotion to his owners, his elegant looks, and his suitability to apartment living.  The Yorkshire Terrier is a small dog breed of terrier type, developed in the 19th century in the county of Yorkshire, England, to catch rats in clothing mills, also used for rat-baiting.

John Christopher "Johnny" Depp II,  is an American actor, producer, and musician. He has won the Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild award for Best Actor. He rose to prominence on the 1980s television series 21 Jump Street, becoming a teen idol.  The famous actor has caused quite a political and diplomatic shake-up in Australia this week while shooting there for the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Well, at least his dogs did.

The actor was warned by the country’s Department of Agriculture that his Yorkshire terriers Boo and Pistol would be put down if they weren’t taken out of the country within 50 hours, Australian broadcaster ABC News reported. This is because the actor failed to put them into quarantine.  “There is a process if you want to bring animals: you get the permits, they go into quarantine and then you can have them,” said Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce. “But if we start letting movie stars — even though they’ve been the sexiest man alive twice — to come into our nation [and break the laws], then why don’t we just break the laws for everybody?”

Several other Aussie politicians, including the Immigration Minister and the Queensland Treasurer, agreed, saying Depp can’t be exempted from the country’s quarantine protocols just because he’s a movie star who flew in with his dogs undeclared on a private jet. Several of Depp’s fans, meanwhile, have started an online petition to save the tiny canines, although many of them blame the actor for flouting laws. “Help me tell Barnaby Joyce not to kill or remove Johnny Depp’s dogs from Australia,” the petition, started by Sydney woman Namita Sopal, reads. “It’s not the dogs’ fault. It’s his stupid fault,” reads a message on the petition.

Joyce, meanwhile, made his position quite clear with classic Australian frankness. “It’s time that Pistol and Boo buggered off back to the United States,”  or face death for entering Australia.  A  50-hour deadline for Pistol and Boo to be sent back to US was set.  Depp is in hot water with the Department of Agriculture after failing to declare his two Yorkshire terriers when he flew into Australia on his private jet last month for the filming of the fifth instalment of the Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise.  The dogs were brought in without proper certification and proper permits -  the  penalties for breaching Australia’s biosecurity laws are severe, according to the agriculture minister.  Australia’s strict biosecurity measures are in place in order to keep out canine diseases such as the bacterial infection leptospirosis and rabies.

The  Australian Minister is forthrightly correct in insisting that none should be able to bypass biosecurity rules, even if they are extremely popular.  The immigration minister, Peter Dutton, admitted there had been an error somewhere in the customs process in letting the dogs in.

Lianne Kent, the owner of Happy Dogz, the grooming service where Depp and his wife Amber Heard had taken Pistol and Boo at the weekend, posted on the business’s Facebook page that it had been “an honour” to attend to the pets. Earlier this month, animal welfare groups called on the environment minister, Greg Hunt, to deny film-makers permits for two capuchin monkeys who were due to perform in the new Depp movie, which is in production on the Gold Coast. The activists said importing the animals from the US to Australia would cause them significant physical and psychological distress.

It all should sound ‘Greek and latin’ in places where rich and famous are able to flout every other law.....

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

14^th May 2015