A rottweiler who got his paws on a polling card might just land his owner a prison sentence. 

The Guardian reports that the council of Stockton-on-Tees, England have reported Russell Hoyle, 45, for electoral fraud after his dog Zeus was mistakenly put on the voting register.

Hoyle denies intentionally providing false information on the registration from, saying in an interview with a local paper that the confusion arose from a joke he made to a census official in 2011.

Council officials don't see the humour though. A spokesman said: "Though we appreciate that registering a dog to vote might seem amusing, it is an offence to provide false information on an electoral registration form and we are obliged to refer cases like this to the police."