A Florida-based woman faces a police investigation after she posted a photo of her dog with his mouth taped shut on Facebook that sparked fury from users, the media reported.
The post, that was shared over 300,000 times this weekend, sparked an outcry from animal lovers, criticising Katie Brown who posted the image, nbcnewyork.com reported.
Soon, local police were inundated with calls and messages showing outrage and concern.
Brown posted a photograph of the dog that looks like a chocolate Labrador with duct tape wrapped around its mouth with a message: “This is what happens when you don’t (sic) shut up!!!”
A minute later, she posted, “Don’t panic everyone it was only for a minute, but hasn’t barked since…POINT MADE!!! (sic)”
Outraged, people from as far as Australia and Canada flooded the Connecticut police with calls.
“Please help us out by not flooding our emergency phone numbers, which may impact other emergency calls. We appreciate your concerns,” city of South Daytona officials were quoted as saying.
The Facebook post has also been brought to the attention of Torrington Animal Control officials in Connecticut.
According to them, there is an animal cruelty investigation underway after being inundated with messages about the situation.
“Be assured that there is an active animal cruelty investigation in progress. We are taking this very seriously. Please don’t send further emails or messages as our email system is overwhelmed. We thank you for your help,” Torrington Animal Control officials said in a Facebook post.
The Facebook account lists Brown as self-employed and a former Central Connecticut State University student.
The photo attracted several comments, with one posting on the police department’s Facebook page: “Thank you to all the people who have reported this and thank you to the city of South Daytona PD for investigating this!”
Another comment read: “Thank you for investigating! I hope those animals are permanently removed from her home!”
According to the police, they were yet to track down Brown’s whereabouts following the complaints.
