PETALING JAYA: A picture of a lorry dragging a dog across a road in Penang has caused outrage among social media users.

The Malaysia Animal Association (MAA), on its Facebook page, shared the picture, and questioned if " Malaysia society hates dogs?"

The group alleged that the dog was dragged along the Seberang Jaya highway in Penang by what looks like a maintenance lorry by Edgenta Propel Bhd.

"Propel needs to step forward and to explain how such cruel act as alleged in the photograph (happened)," it said.

It was not established if the dog was still alive when the photograph was taken.

MAA also called for those with information about the incident to come forward to explain what happened.

"If this incident is real, we want the offenders to be prosecuted and punished," the group said.

At the time of writing, the post has been shared over 600 times, garnering a lot of angry comments from social media users.

Facebook user Rozlyn Mohamed said a police report should be made.

"Justice for the dog, even though I can't touch it, but this animal has feelings. We cannot simply torture this dog," she said.

Another Facebook user Shaffx Ali said an investigation should be carried out first before pointing fingers.

"Perhaps the driver was not aware that the dog was tied to the lorry, or if the animal got entangled with the lorry," he said.

Facebook user Brethatshna Muniandy questioned why stray dogs face such unfair treatment.

"Cats are well taken care of. But dogs? Why this discrimination?" she wrote.

MAA had recently highlighted the case of two men who threw a pregnant cat into a coin-operated dryer in a launderette in Taman Gombak Ria near Kuala Lumpur on Sept 11.

The two men had claimed trial to the offence at the Selayang Sessions Court last week.

At press time, attempts made by The Star to get Edgenta Propel to comment on the issue had failed.