Horrific footage of a yelping dog being barbecued alive at a Chinese market is shared by activists calling for an end to the barbaric trade in dog meat

• Campaign group, Say No To Dog Meat, shared clips from Yulin and Hubei China 
•  Another video shows men pouring boiling water on to a skinned pooch
• They said they are marching to Chinese embassy today to demand an end to the barbaric trade 
• WARNING: Graphic content 

Animal rights activists have shared footage of a dog yelping as it is cooked on a barbecue in a Chinese meat market.

Campaigners are calling for an end to the barbaric trade in dog meat. 

A video shared by campaign group No To Dog Meat, shows a dog in searing pain as it tries to open its battered jaw to yelp, while it's cooked on a barbecue at a meat market in Yulin. 

Another shows men pouring boiling water from pans over a skinned animal. 

MailOnline has decided not to show the videos due to their distressing content.  

The activists also shared clips of a dog stuffed into a cramped cage in filthy conditions in a meat market in the Chinese city of Yulin, which is known for the notorious dog meat festival.  

The videos, which are from earlier dates, were shared in preparation for a march to the Chinese embassy in London today, where activists are demanding an end to the trade of dogs and cats for food.  

'Your food markets have no control over sanitation and nor do the majority of your restaurants,' the campaign group said in a statement. 

'It is time to end the live slaughter and abject cruelty to dogs and cats in your markets (including Wuhan). It is time to end the illegal trade of dogs and cats for food and fur.'

Last week, concerns were raised when images of live animals stuffed into cages, ready for the dinner plate, surfaced from the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, Wuhan.  Though it's unlikely the virus was transferred by eating a dog, experts believe it could have been from one of the other exotic beasts on the menu, like a bat or a snake. 

While some of the 20 million pooches slaughtered each year in China have been bred to be eaten, many others are stolen from gardens and transported to meat markets in horrendous conditions.   

According to the Humane Society: 'Dogs are crammed together on the back of trucks and driven for days—sick, hungry, thirsty, injured and afraid—then beaten to death or hanged in slaughterhouses or markets.'

Last week, Yanzhong Huang, a public heath expert at the Council for Foreign Relations, told Time Magazine that the sale of live animals is deeply-rooted in Chinese culture. 

While only 20 per cent of Chinese people eat dog, mostly in the southern, central and northeast regions, the freshness of one's dinner is a prized luxury, leading vendors to sell live animals or to cook them on the spot. 

Dog meat is also on the menu in Vietnam, but China's consumption of 20 million dogs per year dwarfs its neighbour's five million. 

Last year, the last dog meat slaughterhouse closed in Seoul, South Korea after the  public demanded a halt to the trade.