Are your gloves made out of DOG skin? Barbaric slaughterhouses in China use the hide of pets slaughtered for food to make leather goods - and they are already in UK high street stores, campaigners warn

• WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT 
• Footage shows the grim conditions in which dogs are killed and skinned
• Restaurants that serve dog sell the animal's skin to processing plants
• The skin is turned into leather products - and could be in your wardrobe 
• An investigator saw workers peel the skin off dogs who were still alive
• Horrifyingly, the products may be on the way to Western shops

By Sam Webb for MailOnlin

Leather gloves, shoes and other goods being sold in British shops and online may be made out of dogs slaughtered in horrific factories in China, it has been claimed. 

Dog skin produced in the slaughterhouses are used in products, labelled real leather, destined for export to the West, according to an animal rights group.

Footage taken by People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) shows workers stood by a door at a slaughterhouse the northern province of Hebei. As dogs are led through the door, the men kill them with a heavy stick. Sometimes it takes several blows to finish off the unwitting animals.

Meathooks sway grimly in the foreground of the upsetting footage. PETA Asia's investigator saw workers peel the skin off dogs who were still alive. 

A dog is led out into the slaughteryard in the Chinese factory. A man with a stick stands ready to kill it. Other animals lie dead on the ground. Sometimes it takes several blows to finish off the unwitting animals

The carcasses of dogs hang in the slaughteryard, the ground thick with their blood. PETA Asia's investigator saw workers peel the skin off dogs who were still alive

A pair of gloves made using dog skin. With dog meat restaurants popular in many parts of the country, several establishments later sell the animals' skin to leather producers, which may sell to Western stores

PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk said: 'PETA is sure that Britain, Australia and the U.S. are not exempt from the dog leather trade.

'Many British high-street retailers are importing cheap leather from China, so products made from dog skin are almost certainly on the shelves and in people's wardrobes.

'Skin looks the same, whoever it comes from, and Chinese dog killers are not likely to advertise their skins honestly, so it's impossible to tell if those leather gloves or wallets are made out of dog, cow, pig, or goat skin.

'PETA is calling on British shoppers to consider the terror that dogs and other animals endure when they're mercilessly slaughtered and make the safe, vegan choice in clothing and accessories for the holidays and every day.'

Without conducting expensive DNA tests, it is virtually impossible to know exactly what kind of animal leather is made from.

The organisation said it visited three slaughterhouses and six processing plants in central China during a year-long investigation into the slaughter of dogs and the production of dog skin. 

Cruel hand: A pile of dog corpses on the back of a van. Their skin is being used to make gloves, shoes and other leather products at a factory in China, reports an animal rights charity

Dog hides drying in a room in the Hebei factory. PETA and other rights groups say dogs are slaughtered throughout the country, with regulations on animal slaughter poorly enforced

A dog slaughterer told PETA Asia's investigator that the facility bludgeoned and skinned 100 to 200 dogs a day.

About 300 dogs are kept in the compound, and some can be seen frantically climbing over one another in an attempt to escape the packed holding cell.

Although the dog-meat industry in China is well known, this is the first time that the production of Chinese dog leather has been captured on camera.

News agency Reuters confirmed the use of dog skin during a visit to an open-air leather processing workshop, where workers stretched washed dog skins, to dry in the sun.

With dog meat restaurants popular in many parts of the country, several establishments later sell the animals' skin to leather producers, workers at the Hebei workshop said.

Horrific footage has emerged of the dog fur trade in China

'There are restaurants that sell dog meat and people that eat dog meat,' said one leather producer, who declined to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

'These places have a person who specially comes and collects the skins; they'll go to each place and take a few,' he said, referring to the producers. 'It happens all over the country.'

Officials of the quasi-governmental China Leather Industry Association declined to be interviewed, saying they had no knowledge of dogs being used in leather production.

The Ministry of Agriculture did not respond to repeated requests for interview on conditions in the slaughtering industry, which it oversees.

News agency Reuters confirmed the use of dog skin during a visit to an open-air leather processing workshop, where workers stretched washed dog skins, to dry in the sun

Officials of the quasi-governmental China Leather Industry Association declined to be interviewed, saying they had no knowledge of dogs being used in leather production

PETA and other rights groups say dogs are slaughtered throughout the country, with regulations on animal slaughter poorly enforced.

Dog skin yields a tough leather of generally poorer quality than that of sheep or cows, but which is also cheaper to make.

The plants PETA visited were producing leather for export, said Haleigh Chang, one of the organisation's representatives.

'One owner of a processing plant told us they export dog skin as lamb skin,' she said, adding that lack of transparency on the part of producers made it hard to estimate the size of the dog skin sector within the overall leather industry. 

China has faced criticism for its treatment of animals, including bears, whose bile is used in traditional medicines. Tigers are also bred and killed, in some areas, for their pelts and bones.