Michael Vick’s recent hiring as head football coach at Norfolk State University has been met with lots of mixed reactions. One group in particular is not thrilled with Vick’s recent career move. The animal rights group, PETA, has released a statement on Vick’s recent news via Us Weekly.

“After interviewing him at PETA’s office in Norfolk, Virginia, while his sentence was under consideration, and hearing him tell me bold-faced lies about his poor dogs, I came to believe that he’s a charming, charismatic psychopath, but since I believe he won’t fight dogs ever again, PETA is focusing on working with law enforcement to bust those who still do,” President Ingrid Newkirk said.

Vick, along with three others, was convicted on felony dogfighting charges back in 2007. He was charged with running an illegal dog fighting ring known as “Bad Newz Kennels” out of his Newport News, Virginia, home. Vick was then accused of financing the ring, participating in dog fights and executions, and handling funds related to gambling activities. Vick eventually entered a guilty plea to “Conspiracy to Travel in Interstate Commerce in Aid of Unlawful Activities and to Sponsor a Dog in an Animal Fighting Venture.” In addition, he admitted to helping to kill six to eight dogs by drowning, beating, and hanging them. He served 21 months in federal prison for his crimes.

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Vick received major backlash for his involvement in the illegal dogfighting; his public image was never the same. In 2007, Vick partnered with PETA for its “Developing Empathy for Animals” course. However, in a blog post titled “The Day I Spent With Michael Vick,” published in 2009, the group questioned his professed desire to become an “ally” in the campaign against dog fighting.

“Michael and his camp have done little more than mouth assurances that he’s learned his lesson. Since this meeting, they have only surfaced when Michael has been scheduled for court appearances—until now, when he is asking to get his old job back,” the blog read.

Following his release from prison in 2009, Vick endorsed the “Animal Fighting Spectator Prohibition Act of 2011,” a bill passed by Congress that made attending unlawful animal fights a federal misdemeanor offense and charged adults who brought children to such events with felonies. President Barack Obama signed the bill into law on February 7, 2014, making it a part of the Agricultural Act of 2014.