The Daily Star's FREE newsletter is spectacular! Sign up today for the best stories straight to your inbox Sign up today! Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Invalid Email

The dog, named Flower, had been missing for several days before the family found it at a local meat vendor.

When they arrived they found the dog had been slaughtered, roasted and placed in a flat basket to be sold as food.

The unidentified girl, who is thought to be five years old, had raised the dog for three years before it went missing.

And when passing the local meat market in her local village in northern Vietnam, she spotted the dog and cried: "That's Flower."

Heart-wrenching photographs showing her crying with the slaughtered pet have gone viral on Vietnamese social media.

Her traumatic experience has also sparked a national debate about the ethics of eating dogs.

Dog meat is legal in Vietnam but stories of pets being snatched from the street and offered to the public as food are common.

It is more expensive than pork and can be sold for up to £30 a dish in high-end restaurants.

Eating dog is also legal in Korea, Thailand and China.

More than 300,000 live dogs are smuggled into Vietnam from Thailand because of the high demand – often in cramped cages.