Dog meat would be sold to unwitting customers at the fast food outlet

Customers at a Rio de Janeiro snack bar were unwittingly eating pastries made from the meat of stray dogs, police said today.

Officers investigating the popular fast food house reportedly found boxes containing the frozen carcasses of dozens of dogs.

The canines, which appeared to have been killed with blows to the head, were used for the fillings of 'pastels', a traditional Brazilian stuffed pastry which is deep-fried and normally made with ground beef.

Officers investigating the Rio de Janeiro snack bar reportedly found boxes containing the frozen carcasses of dozens of dogs (pictured)

According to police, owner Chinese Van Ruilonc admitted to making the snacks from dog meat, adding that the animals were strays he had rounded up from streets in the city, which will host next year's Olympic Games.

Ruilonc, 32, is reportedly one of a group of Chinese businessmen who own dozens of pastry houses in Rio de Janeiro, including at least one in the beachside tourist district of Copacabana.

The discovery at the eatery in Rio's northern district of Parada de Lucas was made after officers arrived to investigate claims trafficked Chinese workers were forced to live and work in slave-like conditions.

The canines, which appeared to have been killed with blows to the head, were used as meat at the fast food bar owned by Van Ruilonc

Police found a cage in the back of the establishment where workers were incarcerated, and made to work 18 hours a day without pay.

Public prosecutor Guadalupe Louro Couto said officers were shocked at what they found.

He said: 'I've seen lots of bad things, but what I saw in that pastry house was worse than everything. To start with, there was a cell, like a jail, with bars and padlock, set up inside the snack bar, where the worker was imprisoned.

'Apart from this, he lived with the stench of dead dogs, which were kept in the same room. I couldn't stand it. I started to feel ill and asked to leave.

'When we started to open the polystyrene boxes, we saw the frozen dogs.

'We were perplexed. There were various crimes being committed there.'