The rapper was sent up as the character Snoopathon Dogg Esquire

Where My Dogs At? featured an animation of women squatting on all fours, with a lookalike of rapper Snoop Dogg wearing a rubber glove to clean up after them.

But MTV US told Reuters it was a parody of an appearance by the rapper in which two women wore neck collars and chains.

The series, on the American version of the MTV2 channel, has just ended.

It featured Woofie and Buddy, two stray dogs who joked about celebrities and the music industry.

[It] will, no doubt, perpetuate among younger viewers the misogynist and dehumanising images we have become accustomed to in too many rap videos Stanley Crouch, New York Daily News

The episode in question was broadcast on 1 July and featured a character called Snoopathon Dogg Esquire strolling into a pet shop with two bikini-clad women on leads.

They are seen on all fours and scratch themselves before they are ordered to "hand me my latte" by their apparent "owner".

'Lack of context'

This was an extension of negative images seen in rap videos projected "around the world as 'real' black culture", argued Stanley Crouch in his column in the New York Daily News on Monday.

It would "no doubt perpetuate among younger viewers the misogynist and dehumanising images we have become accustomed to in too many rap videos", he wrote.

The goal was to take aim at that incident for its insensitivity and outrageousness MTV statement

The channel was also criticised by Lisa Fager, president of Industry Ears, an organisation in which broadcast industry figures monitor media content.

She said there was a lack of "context" in the show's storyline.

And Payne Brown, a vice-president at cable company Comcast, told Reuters he had complained to MTV but found its justification of the episode "unsatisfying".

However, MTV insisted it "certainly" did not condone the actions of Snoop Dogg.