A dog walker is feeling a bite of backlash after a video surfaced showing him dragging a dog on its hind legs while three other dogs run on the sidewalk without a leash.

The person who shot the video, Aleksander Kupisz, said the incident happened on March 16, at around 2:30 p.m., on Christie, north of Bloor where Christie Park ends.

“The dog is absolutely terrified,” said Kupisz, who posted the video on his Instagram page, @teslathepresa.

He said the dog was “dragged” for about 50 metres.

“There is no such a thing as walking a dog on two legs,” Kupisz said. “A dog is a four-legged animal. They have four legs.”

He said he is also concerned about the other three dogs being off-leash.

Dog walker Austin St-Jacques defended his actions, saying he was merely guiding the dog by his harness, and not in fact choking him as some suggested. What he did was less stressful than when a dog rears on his hind legs and charges forward, which puts stress on a dog’s chest, he said.

He also sees no harm in walking dogs off-leash.

“Cops give me thumbs up when they see me. They say, hey that’s so cool. And bylaw officials — as long as you’re not too outrageous with it, the bylaw officials are nice with me.”

St-Jacques says the dog, Jerry, used to run into the street at any opportunity but is now “properly trained.”

“While the video is of poor quality, anyone using training techniques that are likely to cause unnecessary or undue hardship, which falls within the definition of distress under the law, could face possible charges under the Ontario SPCA Act,” said Melissa Kosowan, spokesperson for the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

The SPCA, she said, is investigating the case.

Joel Laceda, owner of dog walking company MerryMutt, said he contracted St-Jacques for three months last summer.

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But he said he stopped giving St-Jacques contracts because he was walking dogs off-leash.