A college football team in America has received a stern warning from animal welfare group PETA, urging them to stop using a live bulldog as their mascot.
The Georgia Bulldogs, who are fresh off a blowout national championship victory, have reportedly been contacted by PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) calling on them to retire their mascot and replace it with a human instead.
Uga, who is arguably one of the most iconic (and cutest) sports mascots in college football, has served as Georgia's chief supporter since 1956.
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Whenever Uga enters the 92,000-seater Sanford Stadium, the pedigree pup is given a warm welcome with fans flocking to get a picture with the local celebrity.
But now it looks like that age-old tradition will soon be retired – if PETA have their way, of course.
The company's Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman released a statement, saying: "As the back-to-back national champion, can’t UGA find it in its heart to honestly examine the impact of its promotion of deformed dogs and call time on its outdated, live-animal mascot program?
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"PETA is calling on Jere Morehead [President of Georgia University] to be a peach and replace poor Uga with a human mascot who can support the team in a winning way."
When TMZ posted about the news on Twitter, social media users weren't having a bar of it.
One person tweeted: "Good luck with that."
While another added: "This is ridiculous. I'm sure that dog is being spoiled rotten and well taken care of."
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As another pointed out: "Hey PETA I’m sure there are more harmful things than this to focus on. Focus on real issues."
The university itself is yet to respond, although you can't imagine they'd roll over and play ball quite so easily.
Topics: American Football, NFL
Max Sherry