THE body of a dog has been found dumped in a Worcester canal with weights tied around its neck.

Dog walker Neil Parish was strolling along the towpath in Blackpole, Worcester, when he saw the dog’s hindquarters floating on the surface.

When the body of the male Staffordshire bull terrier was later removed from the water, dumbells were found lashed to its collar, meaning the animal would have been unable to escape if it had been alive.

It is not yet clear if the dog was alive or dead when it was thrown in, close to bridge 18 on the Worcester and Birming-ham Canal, behind the Blackpole Industrial Estate.

But scars show it could have been involved in illegal fighting.

Mr Parish said the grim discovery had hit him and his family particularly hard as they have a black pet Staffie called Blade. Mr Parish had been walking his own dog at 10am on Thursday when he spotted the dead animal. He immediately called the police.

Officers referred him to the RSPCA, who put him on to the city council’s dog team. Eventually, he was told to call British Waterways. A member of its recovery team arrived yesterday morning to recover the dog.

It then became obvious a calculating attempt had been made either to drown the dog, or to conceal the body underwater.

“I’m shocked. I’ve never seen that here before. I am really struggling to understand why anybody would do it,” said Mr Parish, of Chestnut Close, Fernhill Heath.

“It’s terrible. It kills me.”

A spokesman for the RSPCA said: “A large male Staffordshire bull terrier was pulled from the canal.

“An inspector on the scene confirmed the animal had a number of scars on its body.”

It is these marks which suggest the dog was involved in fighting. It is not thought that the body had been in the water very long.

Last year, city dog wardens warned that many of the Staffie strays they were picking up had scarring of the kind often found on dogs involved in illegal fighting.

Anyone with information about the dog death can contact the RSPCA, in confidence, on 0300 1234 999.