People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) released a video by an on-set whistleblower on March 19, 2018, which showed the dog in a cage being lifted by a crane, and thrown into a waterway multiple times. But later it was shown that the video was deliberately edited to mislead the viewer thinking it was an animal abuse. After the PETA video event, director Ning Hao decided to delete that scene from the final film to show the respect, that dog on the set was later adopted by Ning Hao himself.
The producer pulled the plug on the movie for numerous story changes on July 12, 2017.