

The latest threat to the Republic? Missing dog fliers.



A D.C. couple has been forced to tear down thousands of fliers about their missing dog after police threatened them with a $750,000 fine, NBC 4 reported.



Roger Horowitz and his wife, Annemarie, recently adopted Ollie, a rescue dog that had been shot by a shotgun in Georgia, and brought him back to the District.



"He'd been abused by his previous owner and actually shot with a shotgun," Horowitz told the TV station. "So he has about 23 pellets still in his back."



On March 30, Horowitz was walking Ollie when the dog heard a car backfire and took off.



Horowitz filed a missing dog report with police, NBC 4 reported, and he was originally told to post fliers.



Volunteers helped the couple put up thousands of them. Then they got a call saying that they would face a hefty fine if they didn't come down.



"So he told me that regardless if we put up the fliers, or if other people put them up, we had made the original flier that had my phone number, and that we could get fined up to 750,000," Horowitz told the station.



Apparently, D.C. laws have strict requirements on the number of signs that can be posted, the number of days they can be up, and whether or not they can be posted on "lampposts," the police told NBC. Any violations can result in fines up to $300. It was unclear if the fines could be issued for each poster in violation.



"It's kind of this big unknown, of what can we do next?" said Annemarie Horowitz. "What should we do to find our dog?"