MARION, N.C. -- Friends out fishing in McDowell County recently found the body of a small dog stuffed in a gym bag floating in the Catawba River.

Christopher Poole was fishing the Catawba River with friend Hunter Moore when they noticed something in water. It was a pink camouflage gym bag.

“When I put my finger in the bag to pick it up, I felt the fur,” Poole says.

There was a small brown and black Chihuahua stuffed in a draw string bag. Poole says they noticed something was over the dog's mouth, but were unclear what it was. They say they believe the dog was put in the bag and then thrown from the bridge.

“It's difficult seeing that another human would do something like that to a defenseless animal,” Poole says.

Poole says they found the dog around a hundred yards away from this bridge on Yancy Road. He says it seems the dog was in the water for a couple of days.

“That river is running 45, 50 degrees right now. Imagine being stuffed in a bag and you thrown in the river alive to have to inhale that cold water. That would be terrifying,” Poole says.

McDowell County Sheriff's Office is investigating. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, PETA, is offering an award of up to $5,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction.