A Cairo appeal court has reduced the sentences of three men convicted of torturing and slaughtering a dog, Al-Ahram Arabic news website reported.

The men were arrested in late February days after a graphic video circulated on social media showing a brown dog leashed to a pole, before three attackers strike it with machetes and sticks until it dies.

Two of the defendants had their sentences reduced from three years to three months, and the third man from three years to one month.

The defendants, who were present in the court, are aged 28, 29 and 32.

Meanwhile, the sentence imposed in absentia on the owner of the dog, who remains at large, was confirmed as three years.

On 11 March, all four defendants were initially sentenced to three years in jail.  

The dog, named Max, was killed in Qalioubiya governorate's Shubra El-Khayma district last month as part of a deal with its owner to settle the score after it bit several men in a fight, including one of the three attackers appearing in the video.

Egyptian animal rights advocacy groups condemned the incident and held a demonstration in downtown Cairo calling for punishment of the perpetrators.

Apart from killing the dog, the defendants were found guilty of possessing bladed weapons and terrorising the public. The ruling was appealed.

According to Egypt's penal law, anyone who intentionally kills a pet owned by someone else could face up to six months in jail.