A WAVE of condemnation has greeted film of a young woman apparently kicking a dog to stop it fouling a Silsden pavement.

A video shows the dog walker dragging her animal along the path by its lead while talking on her mobile phone.

The footage has been viewed almost 16,000 times on Facebook and has also circulated on Twitter and the community website silsden.net.

The householder who caught the incident on CCTV camera says the dog walker did not return to clear up the mess.

Silsden councillors this week urged fellow townspeople to watch the video in order to identify the young woman and report her to the authorities.

The politicians also demanded action to prosecute the dog walker for both the alleged cruelty and not cleaning up the dog dirt.

The Keighley News has decided not to publish a still image from the video due to uncertainty over the age of the dog walker and a boy in school uniform accompanying her.

The film was shot by a domestic CCTV security camera in a terraced street in central Silsden last Thursday.

The householder, who does not want to be named, said she had looked back through the video footage after finding dog dirt outside her door.

She said: “We were quite shocked that the woman kicked it and dragged it down the road. There’s a difference between not realising your dog has stopped, and kicking it.

“I can’t report it because I don’t know who it is.”

District councillor Andrew Mallinson said he was appalled by the actions of the dog walker.

He said: “I will take this information to the Dog Warden Service and would hope they can follow up with a prosecution. I will ask wardens to carry out patrols in that area.”

Silsden town mayor Chris Atkinson, who is also a district councillor, encouraged Silsden residents to watch the video to see if they could recognise the woman, then report her.

He said: “The dog wardens should go out to the woman’s house and look at the CCTV footage. We need a prosecution.”

Fellow town and district councillor Adrian Naylor urged townspeople to come forward if they could identify the dog walker.

He added: “We’ve been trying for a number of years to reduce dog fouling in Silsden and this is a prime example of why it is still occurring.”

A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police urged the householder to report the incident to both the RSPCA and police.

Bradford Council said dog fouling incidents could be reported online, but complainants had to provide the name and address of the dog owner.

The CCTV footage can be seen by visiting the @KeighleyCatCare Twitter page and scrolling back to March 21.