A court in Spain has convicted a man for killing a puppy in front of his partner in a ruling that for the first time applied a gender violence law to a case of animal abuse.

A specialist gender violence court on the island of Gran Canaria found the 18-year-old guilty of throwing the four-month-old puppy the couple jointly owned off a cliff while threatening to take his own life.

It handed him a suspended sentence of one year and one day in prison, according to the ruling dated September 22 obtained by AFP on Wednesday.

"The animal's death was intentionally employed as a means to inflict psychological damage," the court said.

As a result the court said the case should be viewed "through a gender perspective" and be recognized as "vicarious violence against a companion animal" which need

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