The owner, who preferred to remain anonymous and spoke with his back to the camera, made the confession during a public affairs TV programme aired by RTS, the French-language broadcaster on Sunday night.

He told the “Mise au point” programme that he believed he had run over the dog with his car while parking the vehicle in his garage at his home in Belmont, east of the Vaud capital.

“I saw him there, he was no longer breathing, I thought I had killed him, I felt really responsible for the death of my little dog,” the man said.

The animal was not moving, its tongue was hanging out, and he decided to put it in a plastic bag and drop it in the garbage container, he said.

“My family was nearby and I didn’t want them to know that I was responsible for that.”

The dog owner explained that he did not contact a veterinarian because he was desperate.

“I did not know what to do, I was sure to have killed it,” he said.

“I took the bad decision to put (the dog) in the bag.”

The man said he learned that the dog was alive after reading about its discovery in the dumpster in the local newspaper.

The dog is now being cared for by the Vaud society for the protection of animals, where inspector Michel Christin said it was a case of cruelty and “sadism” that he had never before seen in his 32-year career, Le Matin reported.

Christin noted the dog, found bathing in its own urine, escaped being crushed by a garbage compactor.

The dog’s owner said the dog had been in his home for three years.

“He was a member of the family.”

However, the man is not authorized to retrieve the dog which is set to be put up for adoption.

The SVPA has already been inundated with offers to take the dog.

Meanwhile, the local prosecutor has launched an investigation and the dog owner could face a steep fine for his actions.