No.
You would think that this straight forward answer is the case, but something made me think about this topic recently when the scenario of Amber Heard and Johnny Depp’s dogs arose in media again.
If you are Australian you would’ve heard the scenario that occurred with our agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce and Depp’s dogs illegally entering the country without quarantine. The media then had a field day when Barnaby Joyce made comments (harsh but sort of true) which goes:
“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 law), then why don’t we just break the laws for everybody? It’s time that Pistol and Boo buggered off back to the United States.”
The dogs were given 50 hours to be removed, and at least everyone ended up okay with the dogs returning to the US. I thought that Barnaby could’ve been more polite about the situation but I understand his frustration because Australia’s agriculture is safe from many diseases due to the strict border restrictions.
Pistol and Boo, Johnny Depp’s dogs
However Amber Heard in recent time stated that she and Depp will most likely not travel to Australia again because of all of this.
I laughed so hard when I heard this because Johnny Depp has traveled around the world many times so he should’ve bothered to read up on the strict quarantine laws, and second Rabies is pretty much non existent in Australia, so should they be let in to increase the chance of rabies entering the country just because they are famous? No.
So many times in Hollywood I have read cases where the celeb gets off easy because of their social status. I remember in 2013 when Chris Brown and his bodyguard was supposed to go to jail for a felony assault but only got sentenced for assault misdemeanor.
It sucks that there are celebrities with this kind of attitude who think they are above the law and get all “boohoo” when they break it and the law gives them no leeway. I have a feeling though that the US may be more lenient than Australia because there is such thing as a general hierarchy where rich and famous people are treated better than the average folks.
In Australia these hierarchies exists in the work place and of course can be seen sometimes, but a majority of us believe we are all equal so hence we try to make the law as equal as possible. Is there flaws in the system? Sure. However in a case like this where there could be a threat to the agriculture? Amber and Johnny: You were wrong.
I still think Depp is an incredibly talented actor so I look forward to seeing his work, but this whole thing though could’ve been avoided if he had the dogs just go through quarantine. But hey, most Australians aren’t going to lose sleep over this whole drama anyway.
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