A Dog Named Gucci

Anyone with a shred of human decency, a pet that she cares for or a love of animals will be enraged by the horrifically sadistic stories at the heart of "A Dog Named Gucci," but this technically weak, ultra-low budget documentary rests its laurels on an empathetic audience.

This little piece of animal rights propaganda is framed by the story of Doug James, a man who took in and nursed back to health a small puppy named Gucci, whom we are told was doused in lighter fluid and set afire after being hung by the neck from a tree and sadistically beaten by a group of drug-addled neighbors.

James brought his story directly to the media and solicited the support of thousands of sympathetic citizens in his home state of Alabama and across the country. An outcry from a base of vocal voters encouraged legislators to create a "Gucci Bill," changing the laws in that southern state and making animal abuse a felony.

With this as a jumping board, the movie looks at similar stories of dogs, like Susie who has a remarkably similar owner-abuse story and Nitro who was starved to death by a con artist who ran a kennel.

How could the defendants in these stories enact such heartless crimes? We don't know because we're never given their side of the story. We are asked to enact political change, yet we are only shown one side. Still, this one side is enough to have already created change in a few different states.

A few unimpressive DVD extras accompany this disc, including extended interviews, testimony by the director and a recording of a Q&A at The Sidewalk Film Festival.

"A Dog Named Gucci"
DVD $29.99
www.ADogNamedGucci.com/