A former mental health nurse who killed, butchered and cooked his dog has lost an appeal against his two-year jail term.
Dominic O'Connor's lawyers claimed the sentence imposed for strangling the animal and feeding it to his other dog was excessive.
They also argued there had been a failure to consider a report referring to the Co Down man's potential psychopathic characteristics as mitigation.
Senior judges in Belfast accepted it had been a difficult case, but upheld the sentence handed down for an act of "barbarity".
Dismissing the challenge, Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan said: "We cannot say it was either manifestly excessive or wrong in principle."
O'Connor, 29, of Roden Street, Kircubbin, was convicted of causing unnecessary suffering to an animal.
He had bought the four-year-old collie from online site GumTree.
During police questioning, O'Connor told officers how he strangled the dog with a lead, cut it up and cooked it. with some onions, an Oxo cube, salt and pepper.
He said he fed it to his other dog before burning the remains on a fire.
Later, the ashes were dumped into Portavogie harbour.
His actions were uncovered when he told hospital health professionals what he had done.