Simon Cowell has called for an end to a "cruel" Chinese dog meat festival.

He tweeted: "Yulin dog meat festival is sickeningly cruel so join me and support @HSIGlobal to #StopYulin."

A further statement from Simon pleads with people to donate and join the campaign against animal cruelty.

He writes on the organisation's official website: "It's so brutal, it makes me sick thinking about it. The cruelty, pain and terror these animals experience is disgusting and there are no words to describe how upset this makes me feel.

"The images and footage of the gruesome reality for these helpless animals - many of them still wearing their pet collars - are outrageous and inexcusable. We have to do something. Please donate to help HSI fight the dog meat trade and care for these rescued animals. These animals can't help themselves - it's up to us to do something, now."

The Lychee and Dog Meat Festival, as it's officially known, is held in Yulin, Guangxi, China, were festival goers eat dog meat and lychees.

It's not the first time the star, who owns two Yorkshire terriers Squiddly and Diddly, has put his name to this particular campaign whilst Ricky Gervais has also called for his followers to join the fight.

He wrote on Twitter last year: "Please help stop the #YulinDogMeatFestival ... Will smug idiots stop asking why it's worse to eat dogs than cows. In principle it isn't. But in this case they torture the dogs first ... They believe torturing the dog makes the meat tastier. They beat them, burn them, skin & boil them alive! Disgusting sub human ***** ... They steal people's pets to torture & eat. What would you do to someone who you caught torturing your dog? I hope you'd stop them somehow. (sic)"