IN CHINA animal cruelty is a national pastime.

But even the locals were shocked when this woman driver took her dog for a walk…on a major freeway.

Fellow drivers – including one man on a rickshaw – could barely believe their eyes when they spotted the pooch being taken for his morning walkies in the slow lane.

The black Nissan crawled along at just a few miles per hour while the animal doggedly padded along the highway in Sanya, central China.

“There are some lazy people around but to be so lazy you walk your dog by car really takes it to a new level,” one passer told the Austrian Times.