The French mastiff or Dogue de Bordeaux, was discovered and then rescued on Saturday by a man walking his own dog on waste ground in Carrieres-sur-Seine, west of Paris.

The man posted pictures on Facebook saying luckily “he was in right place at the time to be able to save a life”.

“Only her head was visible and it was difficult to see given the amount of earth covering her,” the man wrote, adding that he had chosen to publish photos on his Facebook page to highlight the cruelty shown to animals.

A police source told AFP that the dog, a Dogue de Bordeaux, was surrounded by stones and her lead was attached to a sack of gravel to prevent her breaking free from the earth.

The man called the emergency services and began to free the animal. The dog, “shocked and dehydrated” according to the police source, was taken to a veterinary clinic nearby.

Police quickly traced the animal to its 21-year-old owner who was taken into custody. He denied burying the dog, saying that the animal had run away.

However, investigators said this was “not very plausible”.

“The dog is more than 10 years old and suffers from arthritis. It's difficult to imagine her running away,” said a source close to the
investigation.

The owner will be put on trial for animal cruelty and could be sent to prison for two years and be forced to pay a fine of up to €30,000 ($32,600).

An online petition calling for the “maximum sentence for the owner” had received 135,000 signatures by Wednesday.