Not to detract in any way from the horror of this incident, but the assumption is that the poor dog was deliberately poisoned.
I don't know the general practice in Cyprus, but my experience of hot countries was that rats are a big problem and the poison put down for them often found its way into hapless dogs.
It is complicated Darwin...
Farmers use poison (Lanate) to kill the foxes and dogs that attack their goats and sheep. The dogs often having been let free by owners that simply don't want them...
So sometimes people out walking their dogs have them poisoned by the meat left out by farmers...
But pet dogs are also poisoned at home - by meat thrown into the garden. My mate's (and next-but-two neighbour) two dogs were poisoned in the garden while we were there - it was ghastly...
It is quite a frequent occurrence...
God knows what goes through the minds of people that would put an animal through such a terrible ordeal...