^ There's actually not anything beyond speculation that there was a lot of animal abuse in Milo and Otis, though it hardly seems unlikely. The movie was basically shot as an animal documentary, on a private farm and animal reserve, and the footage was eventually pasted together in such a way that a narrative could be made of it.
I managed to find this on a forum, apparently a statement from the American Humane Society on the film from when it was new:
THE ADVENTURES OF MILO AND OTIS The Adventures of Milo and Otis is a Japanese production released last year in the U.S. It is an epic fairytale about the friendship between an inquisitive cat and a dog. The only characters are animals. According to the production company, they all belonged to Hata, a zoologist and one of Japans most noted authors of childrens books. According to information released on the film, Hata started developing what he calls Mutsugoros Animal Kingdom on his private island where he has 300 animals including cats, dogs, horses, foxes, deer, raccoons, bears, and bison. He wanted to make a film about his animals, so he hired a crew to live on his island. They spent four years, and shot 400,000 feet of film, then spliced it and made it into a picture. Hata was also the writer and director of the film. Dudley Moore did the voice-over for the animals in the American version. The main character is a cat (played by 27 different cats). The picture shows no animals being injured or harmed. However, before it was released in the United States, AHA heard rumors that some of the cats had died during the filming. We have attempted to investigate this through our contacts in Europe who normally have information on movies throughout the world. They had also heard the rumor, but were unable to verify it as being true. We have tried through humane people in Japan, and through another Japanese producers to determine if these rumors are true but everything has led to a dead end. The picture was released in Japan in 1986. The following Japanese Humane Societies allowed their names to be used in connection with the picture: Japan Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Japan Animal Welfare Society Japan Animal Protection & Administration Society Japan Veterinarian Medicine Associations Japan Pets Association We will continue to seek information and will notify you if we find something that substantiates the rumors. In the meantime, if you should obtain some concrete evidence of abuse, we would appreciate your advising us. Thank you.
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Fair enough, but I think everything you said is wrong and I hate you and you're crazy.