PETA Wants Robo-Dog Cops in Fort Lauderdale After K9 Shooting

Fort Lauderdale Police Department K9 Appie wakes up in the hospital days after a shooting; his chief is sitting at the end of the bed, waiting to let the officer know he’s being retired in favor of a new, line of robotic dog cops.

No, this isn’t a Disneyfied RoboCop remake. It’s a real suggestion by PETA.

The nonprofit, which advocates for animals used in all manner of industries, learned a shooter injured K9 Appie last week and found it an opportune time to pitch Chief William Schultz an alternative. In a letter obtained by New Times, PETA encourages Schultz to replace K9s with robots and drones. The letter from special projects manager Allison Fandl reads in part, “Unlike their human counterparts, K-9s do not sign up to risk their lives. They are loyal and protective, but they cannot consent to be used in violent encounters they did not cause or escalate. Veterinary experts and the U.S. military recognize that dogs like Appie, in addition to suffering the immediate physical pain and other effects of life-threatening injuries, can experience fear and anxiety from post-traumatic stress for the rest of their lives.”

“Many police and military units are already using robot dogs and drones—including in Miami,” PETA spokeswoman Sara Groves tells New Times. “Robots and drones don’t feel fear or pain when they’re shot, stabbed, left in hot cars, or otherwise abused or neglected, unlike the K-9s who suffer and die in jobs they didn’t choose to sign up for. Since these state-of-the-art technologies are already in use, it just makes sense for police departments to transition away from the cruel and outdated use of live dogs and toward modern policing tools.”

Last year, at least 26 U.S. police K-9s were killed; causes of death include being left in a hot police car, being left in an outdoor kennel in hot weather with no shade, being shot by a police officer or suspect, and injuries from car crashes, according to PETA. At least 36 other K9s survived assaults and injuries. So far this year, PETA has found 23 reports of K9s who have been injured or killed.

“Police officers willingly take on the daily risks of their duties, but dogs like Appie don’t get to choose,” PETA senior vice president Daphna Nachminovitch said in a statement. “Appie suffered a violent attack and PETA is urging the Fort Lauderdale Police Department to retire him immediately and take the opportunity to reassess its use of dogs and forcing them into life-threatening situations.”

Robot police dogs have actually been in use for years across the country, with Bloomberg reporting that more than 60 bomb squads and SWAT teams in the U.S. and Canada use a Boston Dynamics version called Spot. The technology is controversial; the New York Police Department briefly suspended its work with Spot after a major public backlash. Critics likened the dogs to Black Mirror and argued that they reflected the increased militarization of law enforcement, the New York Times reported.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a nonprofit dedicated to defending individual rights, in 2021 issued an opinion on their use, arguing they could quickly become weaponized.

“One of the things that makes these robots so unnerving is that everybody implicitly understands that the possibility of weaponizing them will continue to hang out there like a tempting forbidden fruit for law enforcement,” the ACLU said in its opinion. “There is also the fear that they could evolve from a remote-controlled tool to an autonomous decision-maker that makes actual law enforcement decisions of some kind. That would bring up the many issues around bias and inaccuracy in AI decision-making. The ultimate nightmare, of course, would be robots that are armed and made autonomous.”

The ACLU notes there’s “nothing wrong with” some uses for robot officers, like scouting or delivering supplies to hostages. The organization believes robot police dogs, like police drones, should be heavily monitored and scrutinized by the public.

It wasn’t immediately clear what Fort Lauderdale police think about the suggestion. Department officials didn’t respond to a request for comment.