I wasn't aware that Johnny Depp was a Justin Bieber fan, but he appears to have taken some pages out of the young troublemaker's book. Johnny Depp recently put his dogs in harm's way in Australia, something that Bieber knows a thing or two about from his long history of abandoning animals. Nothing terrible has happened to Depp's pets yet, but unless he cleans up his act and takes some responsibility for his actions, there's a possibility that they could be put down. Eeeeek. Let me explain.
Depp is currently in Australia to film the fifth Pirates of the Caribbean movie, and he disobeyed the country's strict animal import laws to bring in the two dogs he owns with fiancee Amber Heard, Yorkshire terriers named Boo and Pistol. Australian law states that in order to bring dogs into the country, you must apply for the proper permits, and then submit the animals to a ten-day period in quarantine to avoid bringing in infectious diseases like rabies, but apparently Depp did neither. Instead, he reportedly snuck them in on his private plane — Australian authorities use the word "smuggled" — when he flew back in to resume filming on April 21. And now the quarantine authorities, upset that he flouted the law so openly, have demanded that he fly Boo and Pistol out of the country by Saturday. And here's the scary part... if Depp doesn't obey the order, they are authorized to euthanize the dogs.
No, but for real, though! This really doesn't seem like a bluff, at least according to what Australian Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce had to say about the situation:
He has decided to bring to our nation two dogs without actually getting proper certification and the proper permits required. Basically, it looks like he snuck them in. We found out he snuck them in because we saw him taking them to a poodle groomer.
And he is not happy about it:
There is a process if you want to bring animals: you get the permits, they go into quarantine and then you can have them. 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? [...] Just because he's Johnny Depp doesn't make him exempt from Australian laws. The way this works is if we are going to make an excuse for Johnny Depp because he's got a private jet and brought in his dogs then I suppose you have to start making exemptions and excuses for everybody.
The thing is, I actually agree with this. Australia has very good reasons for screening pets entering the country so carefully, and Joyce lays them out pretty well:
The reason you can walk through a park in Brisbane and not have in the back of your mind, "What happens if a rabid dog comes out and bites me or bites my kid?" is because we've kept that disease out. I'll tell you how close it is: it's in Bali, it's just next door. So this is not fanciful stuff, and therefore we're very diligent about what comes into our nation.
When put like that, it's clear that Depp put the pets of the entire nation of Australia at risk by flouting the law, and that's what gives me such a Bieber-ish taste in my mouth about all this. Presumably both Depp and Bieber love animals, but they seem to love themselves a bit more, and maybe they feel like they're immune to the consequences of laws put in place to protect and serve other people's pets, not just your own needs. Or, put a much blunter, ruder way:
It's time that Pistol and Boo buggered off back to the United States.
Oh sure. And this is where Joyce loses me, because he takes it that one step too far, joking to Page Six about how if he's forced to kill the animals, he and Depp might not be BFFs anymore. LOLOL.
After that, I don't expect to be invited to the opening of Pirates of the Caribbean.
Oookay bud. There's the line, you found it. Depp currently has 33 hours to get his dogs out of the country, and the clock is ticking. Fingers crossed he takes this seriously.
Image: Giphy
