taser dog
One of the officers continued to taser the dog despite the animal having been ensnared in a control pole Facebook/Lauren Davis

A police department in the US state of Michigan is investigating after footage went viral online showing one of its officers repeatedly tasering a dog.

The pet terrier's owner had reportedly called police after becoming concerned when the dog became loose in their neighbourhood in Roseville.

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The video clip shows two officers attempt to catch the animal, with one deciding to deploy a stun gun.

Despite his colleague managing to ensnare the dog with a control pole, the officer continues to fire electric jolts into the pet as it whimpers helplessly.

One woman can be seen urging officers to stop tasering the dog, but her protests see her threatened with being taken to jail for disorderly conduct.

Another bystander can be heard saying: "The dog's on a control pole; there's no reason to keep tasering him."

The woman filming the incident, local resident Lauren Davis, posted the video on Facebook on Sunday (12 March). It has since been viewed more than 200,000 times.

Calling the police officers' actions "sick and unacceptable", she wrote: "My issue is not the initial use of the taser, that was a good nonlethal call that protected my dog and protected motorists in six lanes of traffic and also the loose dog.

"My issue is they kept shocking the dog after it was on the stick and they didn't even know how to properly use a stick."

She told Fox 2 news that the dog didn't show any aggressive behaviour prior to being shocked, but that it was simply running loose in the neighbourhood.

"The only time that there was anything that could have been construed as aggression is when it was on its back, on the ground being tasered with a catch pole shoved in its face. It snapped at the catch pole, which, I would too," Davis said.

She said she didn't want the two officers involved to be sacked, but instead called for the police department to provide them more training.

Roseville police told Fox 2 they're investigating but wouldn't comment further on the video.