An English Cocker Spaniel carries an empty plastic bottle in Luoyang city, Central China's Henan province, on Sept 8, 2016. [Photo/IC]

An English Cocker Spaniel, 11, has been dubbed an environment protector since it began picking up more than 40 empty plastic bottles a day in Luoyang city, Central China's Henan province.

The canine usually runs to search for the empty glass bottles thrown away by others in greenbelt when its owner Xu Jingliang plays cards with his friends at Zhouwangcheng Square in Luoyang city. Then the dog carries the bottles one by one to his owner.

"I never trained it to do this, however, it could pick up the bottles in its childhood. I counted that it could pick up more than 40 each day. It picks up one at a time, and goes to pick up another one when I take down the one it carried in its mouth", said Xu Jingliang.

"The cute often plays at the Square, we all know so much about its deeds of picking up empty bottles that we sometimes call it an environment protector", said one of Xu's friends, surnamed Yang.