A MAN suspected of beating a dog to death and throwing its body over a fence is being hunted by furious residents.

The male dog, a black and white spaniel cross, was found dead behind Capitol House, an office block off Green Lanes, in Winchmore Hill.

A 21-year-old resident, who did not want to be named, said she saw a man pulling the dog on a lead down Queens Avenue on Sunday, January 17.

She said: "About 6.10pm I saw the man pulling the dog on a lead. The dog wasn’t happy and looked a bit shabby.

“Then, when I was walking to a friend’s about 6.50pm, I heard a dog screaming in pain. The next morning I walked down to the stream and saw the dog had been thrown over a fence near the stream. It was so shocking I ran away, hysterical. I was on the phone to my mum screaming and crying.

“I feel very strongly that he should be caught. I am really horrified by it. Anyone who can do that has got to be sick.”

Jo Rycroft, 36, who owns Tara's Village Pets, in Green Lanes, said the whole community was "utterly horrified and sickened" by the news.

She added: "It is horrendous. I can't understand in my mind how hard you would need to hit a dog until it dies.

"Everyone is absolutely outraged by it. There is a growing hunt to find this man.

"Someone must know something about this. At the very least, there will be someone who used to own a black and white dog and now doesn't.

"It must be someone around here. In the dog world, everyone knows everyone else, so someone out there will know who this man is."

A nurse with Village Vet, in Station Road, said she and a colleague went to recover the dog’s body.

She said: “Nobody has come forward to say it was theirs and it wasn’t microchipped. It’s the first time I have seen something like it.”