PETA Statement: It’s a Crime! No ‘Training’ Excuses K-9 Abuse

For Immediate Release:
April 22, 2021

Contact:
Nicole Meyer 202-483-7382

Below, please find a statement from Rachel Bellis, PETA’s manager of local affairs in the Cruelty Investigations Department, in response to the announcement that the Salisbury Police Department handler in North Carolina who was caught on video abusing a K-9 named Zuul will not face criminal charges:

This is a kick in the teeth to the community and to every decent law-enforcement officer who is as disgusted by the treatment of Zuul as anyone else. Choking, punching, and slamming a trusting dog and then calling it “training” is akin to beating a child and calling it “discipline”—neither is excusable. North Carolina’s animal protection laws apply to everyone, whether in uniform or not. While PETA joins the Salisbury community in our disgust that Zuul’s abuser won’t face charges, this disturbing case has exposed the violent training of many K-9s, and we impatiently await information on the Salisbury Police Department’s plans to overhaul its practices so that no other dog ever suffers as Zuul did.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.