Mr McGauley said the pair found the badly decomposed animal wrapped in a towel inside a cardboard box after being tipped off by the smell.

He said the dog’s feet and tail had been removed, apparently intentionally.

“We couldn’t see its feet cut off at that stage, you could just see all this dry blood and hair smeared across the box,” he said.

“Then we looked behind the box and the tail and the foot had been cut off, that’s when we called the police.

“We opened the box and rolled it over so we could bury it and that’s when we found its other foot.”

Mr McGauley said the police rendered as much assistance as they could but were not able to investigate due to the dog’s decomposed state, which made it impossible to find a microchip and identify its former owner.

“There could have been kids that loved this dog and now somebody does this to it,” he said.

“I think it was more tragic to see that it was somebody’s pet and how somebody could do something like this to it.

“I think people need to keep an eye on their dogs in the Kangaroo Flat/Bendigo region and make sure nobody’s stealing dogs, or if they have any information to contact the right authorities.”

Bendigo Animal Welfare and Community Services president Debbie Edwards said there was no excuse for killing an unwanted animal.

“If you don’t want your dog you don’t need to kill it like that, there’s other options, to hand them over to shelters like us, we would take in a dog like that,” she said.

Ms Edwards said people who were violent towards animals often went on to commit assaults on people.

“We always have fear when people abuse animals like this,” she said.

“No dog deserves to die like that.”

Call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.