It’s a dog fight: The battle over ads targeting Oz regarding animal abuse

Ads detailing the abuse that allegedly occurred under Republican Senate hopeful Mehmet Oz’s watch while he was a principal investigator at the Columbia University Institute of Comparative Medicine have resulted in an embittered back-and-forth between the Oz campaign and the super PAC who funded them.

The ads, funded by a top Democratic super PAC, Senate Majority PAC, depict dogs in various forms of distress along with images of Oz in a lab coat and scrubs. They first hit the airwaves Oct. 11, and have since aired hundreds of times across Pennsylvania.

Oz’s campaign has denied his involvement in the abuse, claiming he was not in the operating room during or after operations, and that he was not alerted to the abuse until after the cases were finished.

Since the ads’ release, Oz’s campaign has attacked their validity, on Thursday releasing a statement claiming SMP was “forced to remove” them from the air.

“Over the last few days, we were informed by both Comcast and broadcast stations across Pennsylvania that the Senate Majority PAC is no longer running their ridiculous lies about Doctor Oz's medical work,” Oz campaign communications director Brittany Yanick said in a statement.

But SMP did not back down. Shortly after the Oz announcement, SMP announced that they plan to air an “encore round” of their “puppies ad campaign.”

“Any implication or suggestion from the Oz campaign that these ads were ‘taken down’ against our intent is categorically false and discredited by the fact that both spots ran continuously in countless markets across the state for over eight days,” SMP spokesperson Veronica Yoo said in a statement Thursday.

“This lie is a clear indication that Oz’s losing campaign is trying to distract voters from the facts presented in our ads: Mehmet Oz supervised the lab that killed more than 300 dogs. Oz has put himself first and screwed over Pennsylvanians so frequently and in so many ways that we’re constantly creating new ad campaigns to remind voters of how unfit he is to be their Senator.”

SMP also says they have received no communication from Pennsylvania stations or from Comcast indicating they intend to take down the ads.