Many dogs in China meet a gruesome end in slaughterhouses, supplying skins to the leather industry, with some of the resulting products destined for export.

Gruesome footage shot early this year by animal rights group PETA shows Chinese workers at a slaughterhouse skinning dogs.

PETA representative Hailey Chang said hundreds are killed every day at facilities like these across central China. Some are even skinned alive.

"The owner of one of the processing plants told our investigator that they ship products made of dog skin internationally as lambskin products and because of the intraceability of the supply chain in China it's hard to estimate how big the dog leather industry is."

Popular products include gloves and shoes.

China's Leather Industry Association declined to comment, saying it didn't know dogs are being used in leather production.