text: Pet cats are being snatched off the streets and killed in their ten of thousands across Asia - to feed the booming appetite for their meat in Vietnam. Restaurants serving domestic cats – sold as a delicacy known as 'baby tiger' – are springing up across northern Vietnam, despite laws against eating the animals. And at one restaurant – an hour's drive from the capital Hanoi – the owner told MailOnline demand is so high he'd slaughtered 31 cats already that day just to keep up. Scroll down for video . Caught, skinned and boned: A wheelbarrow load of cats  arrives at popular restaurant near Hanoi, Vietnam . Although eating cat meat is illegal, police officers and lawyers are among Vietnam's biggest customers. Animal welfare groups blasted the illegal trade – and claim the animals are transported in appalling conditions across large distances before being skinned alive, the bones removed and eaten. The meat is so popular domestic cats are being stolen to order from the street and homes across Vietnam and smuggled across the border in tightly-packed trucks from neighbouring China and Laos. A cat knapper is paid anything between £37 to £52 by a restaurateur per animal, depending on its size. In January a lorry with three tonnes of cats crammed into bamboo cages stacked one on top of another was seized by police on its way to Hanoi from China. Some of the animals perished in searing heat during the journey – and the rest were crushed to death after they were rescued amid fears they might spread disease. The truck driver was fined just £250 (7.5 million Dong) for smuggling them. And a MailOnline probe has found pet cats destined for the dinner table are being held in horrific conditions as they await slaughter. In Va Town, Bac Ninh province, an hour's drive from Hanoi, is the popular Quy Beo restaurant where 'baby tiger' is served daily. The restaurant's most popular dishes are cat meat hot pot, on sale for around £40 pounds and feeds seven – a huge sum in rural Vietnam. Cat meat noodles are £3 pounds a bowl. Ready for dinner plate: Caged cats caught and smuggled across the border to Vietnam will be killed for their meat, which is an expensive 'delicacy' in Asia . Key ingredient: 'Baby tiger' is prepared in the kitchen at the Quy Beo restaurant - to will be served up with noodles and sold for £3 a bowl . Demand: 'Everybody wants to eat cat now – it is more delicious and exotic than other kinds of meat,' the owner boasted. Cat meat was banned in Vietnam in 1997 . Lucrative: Dog meat traders tells how she's also selling cats and business is booming . The owner – who wouldn't be named – led our investigators over the road to his home opposite the restaurant and showed where he keeps hundreds of terrified cats, hissing and pounding their paws against the bars of tiny cages piled on top of each other. The animals are then taken out and slaughtered just feet from their cages. They are allowed to bleed and dropped into boiling water, then skinned in a machine before being boned and taken across the road by wheelbarrow to serve up in the restaurant. Their bones are swept up into a pile in the forecourt of the owner's home after the cats are killed and later used to make broth. 'Everybody wants to eat cat now – it is more delicious and exotic than other kinds of meat,' the owner told us. 'I've killed 31 cats today already. We've never been busier. Some people are superstitious and eat it to bring them strength and good fortune. 'Lawyers, policemen and company directors eat it at the start of the lunar month. Factory workers eat it at the beginning of the month. Rich people eat it all month long.' As he spoke, staff from a nearby Samsung mobile phone factory poured into the restaurant and began ordering dishes after a company bus taking them straight from work pulled up outside. 'It's the best meat there is,' one factory official told us, his face flushed red with rice wine. 'Cats are particular about what they eat so the meat is cleaner and better for you inside.' In a smaller restaurant nearby, owner Nguyen The Tai said the popularity of cat meat had boomed since he opened his restaurant seven years ago. He told MailOnline: 'It's getting more popular because people have more money. On a good night, we kill five or six cats for our customers. 'The best cats are aged two and a half years old and weigh 2.5 kg. We buy live cats for £3.50 a kilo and sell the meat for about £7 a kilo.' Ngo Cong Thi opened a cat restaurant with his wife a mile from the centre of Hanoi eight months ago and said he had been busy from the first night. 'People come from all over to eat here,' he said. 'One evening, we even had three Australian customers in. They tried the cat hot pot and they said it was delicious. Brazen: Despite being banned cat meat is freely advertised at the Quy Beo restaurant in Va Town - an hour's drive from the capital Hanoi . Banned: Police officers and lawyers are some of the restaurant's biggest customers . 'More and more people are eating cat, especially policemen, people high up in the army and the directors of big companies. Cat hot pot and stir fried cat are our most popular dishes.' Ngo kept a cage full of cats ready to eat on a baking hot riverbank slope opposite his restaurant, covered with pieces of carpet and bedding to keep the sun off them. Many of the cats served up in Hanoi were smuggled from Laos or China through Thai Binh province where they are traded and then taken by lorry to Hanoi, he said. 'They can move up to 100 tonnes of cats a month from Thai Binh to Hanoi,' he said. 'It's very big business.' Former Prime Minister Phan Van Khai banned cat restaurants in 1997 when a plague of rats was threatening crops across the country. But the ban has been ignored since the plague was brought under control - allowing cat restaurants to flourish without any legal penalties. Le Duc Chinh, Vietnam coordinator of the Asia Canine Protection Alliance (ACPA) which campaigns against the eating of both cats and dogs, said: 'Sadly, the people who should be enforcing the law are eating in cat restaurants. 'People will stop eating cat meat when they stop eating dog meat. The suffering these intelligent animals go through is the same. 'The problem is people in Vietnam have money and they want to try something new. And the army officers and police officers eating it set a bad example. They are educated people and they should stop. 'Cats are being illegally smuggled in terrible conditions across borders and from one country to another to supply this industry. And because cats are small, many more of them have to suffer and die to meet demand.'
target: WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT .
  Domestic cats stolen off the streets and sold to restaurants for £52 each .
  Moggie meat served in Vietnam as an expensive delicacy called 'baby tiger'
  Serving cat is banned - but big customers are police officers and lawyers .
  Felines are cooped up in tiny cages then killed, skinned and filleted to eat .