The Plague Dogs (film)

The Plague Dogs is an adult animated adventure drama from 1982. Martin Rosen wrote, produced, and directed it, adapting Richard Adams’s 1977 novel. The story follows two dogs, Rowf and Snitter, after they flee a research lab in Britain. The film exposes the brutality of vivisection and animal testing, though Rosen insisted it was an adventure story, not an anti-vivisection statement. Rosen had previously adapted Adams’s *Watership Down*. Nepenthe Productions made the film; Embassy Pictures handled the U.S. release, and United Artists released it in the U.K. It first came out unrated in America, but the DVD version received a PG rating from the MPAA due to mature themes like animal cruelty, violent images, and emotionally heavy scenes.

Rowf, a labrador-mix, and Snitter, a smooth fox-terrier, are among many dogs used in experiments at a facility in England’s Lake District. Snitter’s brain has been surgically altered, leaving his head scarred and bandaged. Rowf has been repeatedly drowned and revived. One evening, Snitter wriggles under his cage netting into Rowf’s, where he finds the latch undone. They wander the facility trying to escape, eventually sneaking into an incinerator and barely getting out before it fires up. At first, they relish their freedom, but soon face the harsh realities of the wild and the hunters sent by their former captors. They befriend the Tod, a nameless fox with a Geordie accent (using the local term for a wild fox). In exchange for a share of their kills, the Tod teaches them to hunt. Snitter longs for a new home, having once had an owner, but loses hope after accidentally killing a man by stepping on his shotgun trigger while climbing onto him.

As time passes, the dogs grow thin, stealing food while dodging capture. The Tod proves hard to cooperate with; when he finds a nest of eggs, he eats them all, angering Rowf. The Tod also disapproves of their risky behavior, such as killing domestic sheep. They separate for a while, but the Tod returns to help by distracting a lab-hired gunman, who falls to his death, allowing the starving dogs to eat his body.