The Cairns Regional Council is under fire for releasing a "tone deaf" media campaign on noisy dogs that some locals argue excuses violent and abusive male behaviour, but is ignoring calls to remove the material from social media.

In February, the Council rolled out the campaign to target excessive dog barking, including a short video and a billboard.

They show a man approaching a woman in her front yard and yelling at her about her noisy pet with the tagline: "This could have been avoided."

Trinity Beach resident Naomi Mancktelow said she was "shocked" when she saw the billboard earlier this month and contacted the council asking for it to be taken down.

"I was very confronted by that and I thought that it was very inappropriate and tone deaf in today's society where we have so many issues with bullying and abuse," she said.

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After receiving no response to her complaint for more than a fortnight, Ms Mancktelow took to social media this week to post an open letter.

It generated a mixed response, with some people saying she was "reading way too [much] into it".

But others agreed the ads were inappropriate.

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Kassy Zandt Tragardh said it looked more like a "verbal violence abuse ad" than a campaign to reduce barking dogs.

"The fact people are brushing this and are commenting saying, 'well, that's what happens if you train your dog right' is the exact message that billboard shouldn't be promoting," she said.

"Abuse verbal or physical towards women is never OK."

Ms Mancktelow said the billboard was removed within 48 hours of her open letter being posted, but that the council told her it was taken down because it was scheduled to be replaced.

Anti-violence campaigns 'undermined'

White Ribbon Queensland chairman Gregory Nash said the noisy dog ad was a "poor analogy" and undermined the work of anti-violence campaigns.

"It's pretty disappointing really — at the end of the day abuse is abuse," he said.

"We're really getting to a point now where we can't excuse any of these sorts of things.

"It's saying abuse wouldn't have happened had a dog not barked and we've really got to look at that as something that is ridiculous we cant excuse any sort of abuse."

The video remains on the Cairns council Facebook and YouTube pages.

In a statement to ABC, a council spokeswoman said barking dogs were a constant source of neighbourhood conflict and council ran an extensive education and awareness campaign to help address the issue.

"We acknowledge that the material is confronting to some, however it accurately depicts an all-too-common occurrence in the community," the spokeswoman said.

"It is certainly not our intent to cause distress, and we have sent apologies to those residents who have contacted us, however we stand by the message."