The Hollywood star felt compelled to appear in a new video by People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) after being shown sickening undercover footage taken by the group.

It showed terrified dogs being savagely beaten to death with a stick before having their skin ripped off their bodies and turned into leather.  

Introducing the clip, Phoenix said it was 'one of the worst things I've ever seen' before detailing the barbaric treatment of the animals as the viewer is shown shocking scenes inside Chinese factories.

He says: 'Dogs like these are taken from China's streets and beaten to death.

'Their skin is turned into leather gloves, belts and other accessories.

'Terrified dogs watch as those ahead of them are kicked and beaten over the head and then have their throats slit and the skin peeled right off their bodies.

'When their turn comes - it won't be quick.'

The original footage, released by PETA in December, shows workers standing by a door at a slaughterhouse in the northern province of Hebei.

As dogs are led through, 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. PETA Asia's investigator saw workers peel the skin off dogs who were still alive.

The skin is then turned into leather and sold to unsuspecting customers around the world, including, the group claims, in Britain.

Phoenix said: 'If you buy leather gloves, belts or shoes, remember there no easy way to tell who's skin your really in.

'If you love dogs like I do, the please never buy or wear leather, whether it comes from a dog, a cow or any other animal.' 

In December, 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. 

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 hides 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.

'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.

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. 

(dailymail.co.uk)