TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — After being dragged by a motorcycle for over one kilometer in rural Changhua County, a three-month-old puppy has suffered numerous injuries and trauma, but has received treatment and the elderly man responsible has been found, according to the Facebook Group Changhua People’s Congress (彰化人大小事)

According to the Facebook group, the puppy inadvertently wandered onto a vegetable garden and became trapped in a metal snare. An elderly man then chained the puppy to the back of a motorcycle and dragged it for over a kilometer in on Provincial Highway 17 in Fangyuan Township in Taiwan’s Changhua County at around 3:30 p.m. on March 12.

A couple who witnessed the barbaric act pleaded with the man to let the puppy go and they then took it to a vet. The puppy suffered bruises to all of its limbs, with a deep laceration on the left forelimb and hind leg that exposed bone.

After emergency treatment by an experienced veterinarian, the puppy was upgraded from critical to stable condition, but it still shivers when it stands. A reward of NT$46,000 was raised by netizens for the capture of the perpetrator of the crime.

Photo used to describe the make and look of the motorcycle used in the incident. (Photo from Facebook group 大城 リリ)

According to staff at Taiwan Lifeng Huimin, an animal rescue association, the puppy has been named “Oyster Omelet” and “the dog has three drainage tubes for his wounds and it is particularly afraid of men.” Volunteers at the association said to ETtoday that they reported the incident toe the Changhua County Animal Disease Control Center and began a search for the elderly man, “After reviewing CCTV footage of the motorcycle and going door-to-door, our volunteers and staff from the Disease Control Center finally found him!”

According to Yang Huai-min (楊懷民), a member of the rescue association, “The old man admitted that he did it, but he did not think he was wrong because the dog stepped on his farmland.” Yang said that when police questioned the elderly man, who is about 60 or 70 years old, he had a stubborn attitude.

CCTV footage of the dog being dragged behind the motorcycle. (Photo from Facebook group 大城 リリ)

Even when the volunteers proposed to meet and discuss the matter with the man, he refused, therefore he will likely be charged in accordance with the law. Yang said that pressing criminal charges is the last resort, but “because the old man refuses to meet. People need to understand that life must be respected and they must understand that such behavior is wrong and that there is a penalty under the law for this.”