A clip of a woman dragging her dog as she drives her motorbike on the road in Bali has gone viral on social media.
The video, which was uploaded to Instagram on May 9, shows the woman riding a motorcycle with a small dog with its neck tied being dragged along the ground. The dog is clearly struggling to keep up with the motorcycle, its paws bleeding as they scrape the ground.
The video has sparked outrage on social media and it has been viewed 134,000 times as of yesterday.
The clip uploader, a man identified as Nang Bryan, 42, was quoted by Kompas as saying that the incident happened on May 9 at around 2pm in front of a school on Ciung Wanara Road in Denpasar.
“When it happened I [took out my phone to] record […] because I did not have the stomach I stopped recording,” he said on Saturday, adding that he immediately scolded the motorcyclist.
The woman reportedly made an excuse that she did what she did because the small dog could not hop onto the motorbike. After Bryan reprimanded her, the woman was said to have relented and eventually put the dog on her motorbike.
Bryan said that he was in a hurry to pick up his kids from school so he was unable to see the woman off. While he did not report the incident to the police, he said that an animal welfare group contacted him after the clip went viral.
Separately, Christian Joshua Pale, the founder and leader of Animals Hope Shelter Indonesia (AHS for Indonesia), said that his organization has pocketed the woman’s identity based on the motorbike’s plate number and planned to report her to the police.
Under Indonesian law, animal abusers may face nine months behind bars if proven guilty.
Christian said the incident needs to serve as an example to other Indonesians about the country’s law against animal abuse.
The police have since confirmed that they are investigating the incident.
“We are investigating the vehicle owner,” said Bali Police spokesman Stefanus Satake Bayu Setianto.
