Several residents in the Manor Park area of Ottawa say they are shaken after they say they witnessed a man use a shovel to beat a dog nearly to death.

The incident happened just after noon in front of a house at Barclay Road and Eastbourne Avenue.

Stephane Lalonde said a young man threatened people who tried to intervene as he repeatedly beat a dog with a shovel and then threw its body into a dumpster.

Both the dumpster and the wheelbarrow he used to carry the dog were heavily stained with blood.

"Just disgusted. We're all disgusted. And it's disturbing," said Lalonde. Rachelle Lacroix said the dog was hers and the culprit was her 24-year-old son Steven, who came to her house Wednesday afternoon. She said when she refused to open the door her son became angry and took it out on her dog, Breezy. "And then I saw him picking up the shovel. I went in the kitchen and I called the police, and I said hurry, hurry. My son Steven is killing the dog," she said. Dog had multiple broken bones As soon as neighbours could approach, they went to the dumpster. John Gauvin saw the dog at the bottom.

"He was all cut about the head. Every time he exhaled you could see blood coming out of his nose," said Gauvin. The Humane Society rushed the dog, believed to be an 18-month old German Shepherd-Labrador mix, to receive medical attention. Veterinarians at the Humane Society said the dog has multiple broken bones and said it was too early to say whether she can be saved.

Ottawa police are investigating and have made an arrest.