Horrified animal lovers have attacked police cruelty after CCTV footage emerged of a patrol car dragging a dog behind it.

Outrage As Cops Drag Dog Behind Patrol Car from News X on Vimeo.

The footage – filmed in Tuxtla Gutierrez, a city in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas on Monday, 6th March – shows a dog tied to the back of a police pickup truck.

But as the police cruise along, the poor animal can be seen struggling to keep up.

Behind them, a taxi can be seen speeding up behind the patrol car, with the driver honking their horn frantically, trying to warn the officers to pull over.

Astonishingly, instead of being grateful, the police reportedly arrested the cabbie and threw him into a cell.

Local media said that he was beaten, threatened and forced to pay a bail bond to get out of jail.

It is currently unclear if the dog was injured in the incident, with local media reporting that its current whereabouts are unknown.

After the footage emerged on social media, it prompted outrage from netizens.

One social media user ‘Sam567C’ said: “Torturing animals is how serial killers and other criminals behave. It is incredible that ‘security’ is in the hands of potential murderers, kidnappers, hitmen. Because this is usually what this kind of ‘police’ is like.”

While ‘Atrujillo3’ said the officers were “sick in the head” and ‘XAVIMEXXX’ said that they were “disgraceful wretches”.

This then prompted the city’s Secretary of Public Security and Municipal Transit to say that it had begun a disciplinary case against the officers involved.

But it also reportedly denied that the footage showed animal cruelty.

The Secretary of Public Security said in a statement on social media: “In relation to a video circulating on social networks where it is observed that a patrol of this town drags a dog, the Municipal Public Security Secretariat reports that it has initiated a disciplinary administrative procedure […] in order to clarify these reprehensible facts and punish those involved.”

It was unclear at the time of writing if the officers involved had been suspended.

It was also unclear if the charges against the taxi driver had been dropped.