A man has been filmed repeatedly swinging a dog around his head on a lead.

The video, shot at around 6pm on Julian’s Road, Stevenage yesterday, Thursday, shows the man walking down the road swinging a chihuahua on a lead around his head several times.

The dog has not been injured and was returned to his female owner last night. The males had been allowed to take the dog for a walk and she was not aware of what happened until the video was posted on Facebook.

The Stevenage Stig, who sent the video to the Comet, said; “These scumbags need to be caught, yes my page is about fun and taking the mickey but I will not tolerate things like this.

“After all the critique my page gets I feel it is my duty to report incidents like this as I do thankfully have the support from a lot of people in Stevenage and can reach out them. Anyone can contact the STIG via his Spotted in Stevenage Facebook page.”

PC Lindsey Cox from the Stevenage Safer Neighbourhood Team is investigating and said: “No animal deserves to be treated in this way and we are taking this matter extremely seriously. This is being treated at this stage as an incident of causing unnecessary suffering to an animal.

“We appreciate the images are not of the best quality but I am sure someone will know who these people are and I would urge you to contact me straight away. We can see there were a number of people driving and at least one other pedestrian in the area at the time, if you saw what happened please also contact me.

“We are looking at lines of inquiry, including trying to trace the witness who filmed the incident, however I would ask that they also please make contact with me. If you don’t feel you can contact police then please do call Crimestoppers anonymously, we must trace these people as a matter of urgency.”

A spokesman for the RSPCA said: “The RSPCA is very concerned about this footage of someone swinging a Chihuahua around on a lead. This would likely have caused the animal great distress as well as potentially serious injury.

“We urge people to remember that they have a legal and moral responsibility to ensure animals in their care are properly looked after, free of suffering, with all their needs catered for.

“We have received some complaints which we are now investigating and urge anyone with any information to contact the police or call the RSPCA on 0300 1234 999.”

Anyone with information should contact Herts police non-emergency 101 number quoting crime reference number E1/14/4685 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.