Update: 10/5/2015:

Animal rights activists from the group Cause Animale Nord have returned the puppy they took from a homeless man last week. Paris police launched an inquiry into the case and brought one of the activists in for questioning. They released him on the condition that he would return the dog to his owner.

########

An animal rights group in Paris, France shocked the world this week when they forcefully took a puppy from the arms of his homeless owner.

In the video below, you can see members of the activist group Cause Animale Nord pin down a homeless man and steal his dog. The puppy is clearly terrified and tries to hide from the activists. You can hear him screaming and howling in the video.

***The video below may be too traumatic for some of pup ruvers.***

According to the activists, they believed the man was drugging the puppy and using it as part of a scam to beg for money. They have renamed the pup “Vegan” and posted on Facebook that the dog was up for adoption, though that post has since been removed.

There is currently a Change.org petition to have the puppy reunited with his owner.

The petition reads, in part:

“Nowhere does it stipulate that it has the right to remove an animal without warning. That’s what they did by violently attacking a homeless person to remove his puppy around the Chatelet area of Paris. To justify this act of extreme violence, they allege that the homeless person is a Roma and that the animal was drugged, it hadn’t been vaccinated or had ID and was malnourished.”

The homeless man and his advocates deny any such claims that the pup was being mistreated or in poor health.

We will update this story with more information as it becomes available.