Statement: PETA Calls for Ban on Owning Animals in Case of Buffalo Students’ Arrest Over Dog-Beating Video

For Immediate Release:
June 30, 2023

Contact:
Moira Colley; 202-483-7382

Buffalo, N.Y. –

Following reports that two University of Buffalo football players face charges now that video has emerged of the two allegedly beating a small dog named Kobe with a leather belt, please see the following statement from PETA Senior Vice President of Cruelty Investigations Daphna Nachminovitch:

“Thanks to the tipster who reportedly alerted authorities to this vicious dog-beating video, Kobe the dog is now safe and his alleged tormentors face criminal charges. PETA is urging the district attorney to seek a ban on contact with animals for these men if they are convicted and urges everyone to speak up whenever they witness cruelty to animals, for the sake of the victims and all animals in the community, because animal abusers are often repeat offenders.”

PETA’s letter to Erie County District Attorney John Flynn is available here.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information on PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.