POLICE were called when a car was seen driving through town with a dog tied to the back.

Stunned witnesses saw the terrier-like dog struggling to keep pace as the silver van made its way through Southwick town centre on Monday morning.

The male driver of the van stopped when honked at by the driver behind.

He said he had not realised that his son had tied the dog to the tow bar.

The dog was checked over by a vet and had a small cut on its paw, police said.

A witness said: “All of a sudden I heard a horn hooting and I saw a silver van driving along and it had a blue rope on the back and there was a dog attached to it.

“The dog was on his feet because the driver was not going very fast and the lady in the car was trying to draw attention to the fact the dog was behind him.

“I could not quite believe what was going on. If he had accelerated and gone on to the main road it would have been horrible.”

A police spokesman said: “The pet had been tied to the tow bar of the vehicle without the owner’s knowledge and when he discovered what had happened, after a short distance, he immediately stopped.

“The animal has been checked out by a vet but has suffered only a minor cut to one paw.”