Animal rights activists have warned people in China against giving money to beggars asking for money to help mutilated animals.

These pictures claim to show a camel deliberately mutilated to get people to feel sympathetic and donate more money, apparently towards its upkeep.

The camel and two beggars were photographed in the city of Fuzhou, Fujian province, south-east China, where police confirmed mutilating animals was now the new trend.

Scroll down for video

Beggars belief: Two men kneel with their foreheads on the pavement as they ask for donations to help look after a camel with no feet. Animal rights activists say such beggars are scammers that mutilate animals

Mutilating people, they said, no longer seemed to gather as many generous donations, with people more often making a wide berth around limbless beggars.

Police were unable to take any action against the gang as they hadn't broken the law. The camel has been used for begging since at least April and, according to local media, brings in lots of cash.

The men claimed that the camel was a wild camel that they had rescued after it had been run over by a train. They denied mutilating it, saying they had taken it upon themselves to care for it and needed the money for food.

But police say the story is a sham and it's almost certain the men or their contacts hacked off the camel's hooves themselves.

Animal cruelty: The men claimed that the camel was a wild camel that they had rescued after it had been run over by a train. They denied mutilating it, saying they had taken it upon themselves to care for it

With just 600 wild camels left in north-west China's Gobi desert, and 800 in the deserts of Mongolia, their survival in the world is seriously at risk and they are supposedly strictly protected.

In practice though there is rarely any action against people who trap the animals, mainly because of the difficulty in proving they are not domestic animals.

The mutilation of this camel is the latest argument by animal rights activists for China to change the law on the torture of animals, in a country where cruelty to animals is not illegal.

Change in the law: The mutilation of this camel is the latest argument by animal rights activists for China to change the law on the torture of animals, in a country where cruelty to animals is not illegal

Animal rights campaigner Xiong Kung said: 'You can see that the animal was obviously mutilated some time ago because the wounds are now healed.

'My information is that they get a large amount of money every day from people shocked by what they see and in effect they are rewarding these criminals for torturing the animal in the first place.