A Kuwaiti-based company with ties to U.S. companies and multinationals is under fire from animal lovers for euthanizing 24 of its own bomb-sniffing dogs because it lost a contract with state-owned Kuwait National Petroleum Co.

Photos of the dead German Shepherds at the hands of their owner, Eastern Security, enraged animal welfare groups and sparked a petition through the online portal Care2 to force the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait to “secure the remaining 60-90 dogs” and turn them over to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals International.