Picture this: you’re walking down the sidewalk on a bright summer’s day. A K-9 patrol vehicle parks nearby – and instead of a dog getting out of the backseat, something more Terminator-esque emerges: a tactical robot.
This is the future that PETA has imagined for us all, judging by a letter from the animal rights group in response to a K-9 injury in Michigan last week. Digo, a canine with the Grand Rapids Police Department, was nonfatally stabbed three times, once in the head, while working to help police apprehend a violent suspect.
In response, PETA wants robots and drones to replace the animals entirely.
“Unlike their human counterparts, K-9s do not sign up to risk their lives,” PETA Manager of Special Projects Allison Fandl wrote in a June 2 letter to Interim Chief Joseph Trigg. “They are loyal and protective, but they cannot consent to be used in violent encounters they did not cause or escalate.”
Police1 reported that activists want the Grand Rapids department to replace their dogs with advanced technology, including tactical robots, drones and portable mass spectrometers.
