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A group of dog lovers broke into tears after failing to raise enough funds to save pet dogs from the dinner table.
A dozen pet dogs, including Huskies, Labradors and Golden Retrievers can be seen in a video chained under a slaughterhouse in Harbin, Heilongjiang province.
The 'butcher' had asked the group for an 'unreasonable' price in order to save the animals.
The beginning of a 23-second clip, posted by Pear Video, shows a female dog lover standing in front of an outdoor slaughterhouse.
More than ten dogs can be seen chained to the slaughterhouse facility, next to dog meat, knives and animal blood.
'When we first arrived, a golden retriever was being slaughtered,' she said while pointing at the golden hair left on the large chopping board.
The doomed dogs, however, are not the common breeds raised by Chinese dog-meat farmers.
German shepherd, Chow Chow, and Kunming Wolfdog are among the most popular breeds raised for dog meat, according to a dog farm in Shandong. Chinese Shar-pei, known for its deep wrinkles, is also a breed commonly seen in the country's dog-meat farm.
Pet dogs such as Huskies and Golden Retrievers are rarely seen on the dinner table.
The group of dog lovers, keen to buy and release the dogs, negotiates with the butcher while he is cutting the flesh off a slaughtered dog.
He insists that the group must pay £170 for each dog.
Dogs raised for meat were only trading at £1.50 per lb as at the end of April this year, according to an industry website.
The dog lovers made several phone calls to raise funds to buy the dogs however failed.
The animal lovers become emotional after their bid to lower the price failed. They can be seen wiping tears from their eyes while making the phone call.
The video ends as another dog was being butchered and hung on a hook.
It is not stated when the incident took place.
The video has attracted almost three million views in just a day. Tens of thousands of online users on Weibo criticised the butcher for setting an 'unreasonable' price to set the dogs free.
'These pet dogs appear to be stolen dogs. They are not supposed to be cooked. The butcher probably has raised the price up after seeing these potential buyers.' one user said.
'The butcher is no different from a robber if he sets such a high price.' another mocked.
'Who would buy the meat knowing that they are from Husky?' an user wondered.