The Public Security Bureau in east China's Wenzhou City announced Thursday that a police office was dismissed from his post after the bureau verified netizens' claims that he had used a police car to walk a dog.

"The officer was a deputy head of the criminal detection brigade of the bureau. He has been removed from his post, and revoked his police car driving license," confirmed Wang Xiaomin, a spokeswoman of the bureau.

The bureau did not give the name of the officer. But Ye Hanbing, director of the bureau, said the bureau welcomed the Internet supervision of its work.

The photos of the police car with the license plate of C2319 Zhejiang was seen on a post at an Internet forum on June 29. A netizen said he saw the car driving slowly at 5:45 a.m., with a dog on a lead trotting by its side. The driver was holding the dog's lead.

"Walking a dog with police car harmed the police image. The policeman was certainly not doing his duty," said a woman surnamed Cao in the Wenzhou Internet forum.

The police chief Ye said the bureau investigated as a result of the Internet discussion.

Soon after the bureau's announcement on the punishment of the officer was published on its website, many Internet comments said the punishment was too harsh.

"No need to make such a great fuss. The punishment is too severe," said a Netizen on QQ.com.

"Not all Internet exposures are important, and the guy just had bad luck," said another netizen.

(Xinhua News Agency July 2, 2009)