Online vigilantes set fire to a man’s house after he was filmed killing his dog by dragging it behind his car for several miles.
Horrific footage shows the lifeless German Shepherd hanging from its leash while being towed at 50mph across a road in Belgium.
The sickening video, taken on July 4, quickly went viral after it was posted on Facebook by a shocked witness named Victoria.
Although the driver’s license plate was obscured, users were quickly able to identify him and find out where he lived.
The thug received numerous hate messages, and a petition with over 50,000 signatures was launched demanding ‘justice for the dragged dog.’
But, the case took a more serious turn on Monday morning after appalled animal lovers decided to take the law into their own hands, tracking down the thug before burning his house to the ground in an ‘attempted murder’.
Serge Fillot, the mayor of Oupeye, the town where the dog’s owner lives, said: ‘I was called around 3.00 or 3.30am.
‘I was told that the dog owner’s house had been set on fire. Fortunately, he managed to get out on his own.’
He said that action against the man was ‘unacceptable’ even if the dog’s death was ‘cruel’ and ‘tragic’.
‘If someone deliberately set fire at night while someone was in the house, that’s attempted murder,’ Fillot told German media outlet RTL.
The residence was also spray painted with the words ‘Dog killer’.
‘We will secure the premises, and measures will be taken to protect this person, both at their workplace and at their home,’ added the mayor.
The Public Prosecutor has opened a separate investigation into the arson attack.
‘An expert has been requested to determine the cause of the fire,’ it stated. ‘The initial investigation suggests that it was arson committed at night while people were present in the home.’
The perpetrator of the arson faces a sentence of up to 30 years in prison. Both investigations are continuing, both into the animal abuse and the arson charges.
According to initial findings from the investigation, the dog’s owner went to the Hermalle police station on Saturday morning and claimed that his dog found itself in this position after jumping out of the window without him realizing it.
Victoria, who witnessed this scene of ‘unbearable cruelty’ firsthand, recounted in the Facebook post that she repeatedly honked her horn to make the animal’s owner stop.
‘He finally stopped his vehicle and approached me, asking if I was the one honking,’ she said.
Victoria then asked him if he thought it was normal to treat her dog like that.
‘I do what I want, it’s my dog,’ the man allegedly replied, before taking the animal off its leash and ‘throwing it in the trunk of his car like a common thing.’
