
A dog owner in Italy has been accused of training their canine to dump bags of rubbish on the side of a road.
Video footage released by police shows a small dog leisurely walking down a road in Catania's San Giorgio district in Sicily carrying a bag of rubbish in its mouth before dropping it.
Local authorities say the dog's actions - which were captured on video on two consecutive days - are evidence that "leaves little room for doubt" the canine had been trained to drop off the bags so that its owner could avoid being filmed discarding them.
Fly tipping is illegal in Italy, but it remains a common problem.
Local authorities have been trying to step up efforts to get a grip on the issue by using methods such as surveillance cameras to catch culprits.
"Ingenuity can never become an alibi for incivility," the municipality of Catania said in a post on its official Facebook page.
"Respect for urban etiquette and the environment is everyone's duty," it added.
The post did not say whether any action had been taken.