The national animal rights organization battling with the Fayetteville Police Department over a viral video of a police officer striking a police dog has put up billboards around Fayetteville, including near police headquarters.
The billboards, organized by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, have been placed in areas around Fayetteville to urge the department to immediately retire the police dog and to reassign the police officer away from working with animals, according to a news release.
“The Fayetteville Police Department has made a shameful attempt to justify this officer’s violence by victim-blaming the dog, who did only what K-9s are trained to do,” the release said Friday. “PETA is calling on the department to respond to its constituents’ justifiable concerns, retire the abused dog, and ensure that this abusive officer has no contact with animals again.”
PETA is also calling for a third-party investigation into the incident and is calling for police departments across the country to “phase out the use of dogs altogether,” the release said.