A MAN who tied his friend's dog to a tree before dousing it in petrol and burning it to death has been jailed for almost four years.

Alastair Graham was looking after Bruno, a Staffordshire Bull Terrier cross, for a friend when he snapped after the animal bit his finger.

He tied the animal to a tree in Kirkcaldy's Dunniker Woods and poured a can of petrol over the terrified dog.

He then set the dog alight - ­causing horrific burns.

A sheriff at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court told Graham the attack was a "grotesque act of savagery".