BERLIN — When a debt collector came calling on a family in a northwestern German city about unpaid bills, including a dog tax, the official was looking to seize the family’s most valuable asset.

The collector considered other items, but finally settled on a prized female pug named Edda and seized the dog — which the city then sold on eBay for 750 euros — roughly $850.

A city spokesman on Thursday called it “a pragmatic solution” to an outstanding debt.

But the case has prompted outrage from animal rights activists and others in the city of Ahlen, raised questions about the cruelty of the seizure and spurred debate about whether any German laws had been broken.

“I didn’t know what was more outrageous: the fact that they seized the dog or the fact that they put it on eBay,” said Birgitt Thiesmann, an activist at Vier Pfoten, a German animal protection charity.