Chinese factory worker cooks and eats employer’s ‘wild’ corgi
PUBLISHED : Sunday, 21 February, 2016, 8:54pm
UPDATED : Sunday, 21 February, 2016, 8:54pm
Gloria Chan
[email protected]
A Pembroke Welsh Corgi. The animal at the centre of the dispute was worth US$1,840, according to The Mirror newspaper. Photo: AFP
A factory worker in eastern China has been charged with theft and released on bail after killing and eating his employer’s corgi because he thought it was “wild”, a Beijing newspaper reported.
The man, surnamed Zhang, found the corgi in the public toilets at the factory grounds in Xuzhou, Jiangsu province on February 13, according to The Mirror.
Thinking it was a wild dog, Zhang beat it to death with a wooden stick, then brought the body to his staff quarters that night. He and his two roommates then shaved and skinned the dog, then cooked and ate it the next day.
The dog was worth an estimated 12,000 yuan (US$1,840 or HK$14,300).
They did not know that the dog was their employer’s pet until the factory owner, surnamed Wang, put up a notice about the missing animal the next day, offering a reward of 8,000 yuan for any information about it.
The “missing” poster the owner put up. Photo: SCMP pictures
Wang received a phone call from a factory worker saying that he saw Zhang beating a dog on the night it went missing. Wang visited Zhang’s quarters where he found the floor covered with dog fur and a knife with fur stuck to it.
“I thought it was a wild dog, I did not know it was so precious,” Zhang was quoted as saying. He and his roommates offered to pay Wang for his loss, but Wang refused and brought the three men to the police station.
Zhang was charged with theft and released on bail. The other two men were fired by Wang.
According to Wang, he bought the corgi as a month-old puppy for his daughter in May last year.