Audra Petraškienė was driving her car along the river near her home in Lithuania, when she spotted something unusual.

On the roadside stood a wet dog, shaking with fear.

Audra braked, jumped out of her car and rushed towards the poor animal.

But as she more closely inspected the dog, Audra noticed something terrible around the dog’s neck — and it made her furious.

It was last Friday that Audra Petraškienė’s trip through a small Lithuanian city was disturbed by a shocking sight.

Audra saw a shaking dog that appeared to have been drowned in the river. She stopped her car to check if the dog was okay, but upon further inspection, she noticed that the poor animal was far from okay.

A heavy metal object was attached to the dog’s neck — it was a makeshift anchor.

“Apparently, somebody put a heavy metal item on his neck and dropped him in the river to drown,” Petraškienė’s daughter, Andra, told The Dodo.

The dog was obviously terrified and shaking from the cold.

Somehow, it had managed to escape from its terrible fate and make it on to safe land.

“He’s a real fighter,” says Andra.

Audra could simply not understand how anyone could be so cruel as to try to kill a poor dog.