Literally!

It appears 3 Chinese workers mistook their boss's rare pet Cardigan Welsh corgi for a stray ... and ate it.

... they cooked the animal after it was found roaming a steel plant in Xuzhou City, Jiangsu Province.

happened before their boss had offered a reward for the missing £1,300 pedigree pooch.

When he learned what they'd done ... one worker was arrested for theft and the other two were fired.

Tale courtesy of Tuesday's Metro.