[Note: In the wake of the Hot Doc festival’s postponement this year, The Hollywood Reporter is reviewing select entries that elected to premiere digitally.] At the heart of The Walrus and the Whistleblower, the new documentary portrait of ex-animal trainer Phil Demers, is a hashtag: #SaveSmooshi.
In 2012, Demers quit his job at Marineland in Niagara Falls, Canada, after watching too many animals suffer from mistreatment, like being forced to swim in chlorinated water until they were covered in chemical burns.
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