LATE THEM EAT HARE: Venezuela’s ‘Plan Rabbit’ encounters ‘cultural problem.’

The president urged crisis-hit Venezuelans to breed rabbits and eat them as a source of animal protein.

Venezuela is facing record levels of child malnutrition amid persistent food shortages.

An opposition politician said the plan was “a bad joke”.

President Maduro revealed the idea on state television, saying that “for animal protein, which is such an important issue, a ‘rabbit plan’ has been approved because rabbits also breed like rabbits”.

The leader did say that the “rabbit plan” had not got off to a good start and the minister of urban agriculture, Freddy Bernal, said there had been a “cultural problem”.

President Maduro said rabbit kittens had been handed to 15 communities as part of a pilot project by Mr Bernal.

“When he came back, to his surprise he found people had put little bows on their rabbits and were keeping them as pets, it was an early setback to Plan Rabbit.”

“A lot of people gave names to the rabbits, they took them to bed,” Mr Bernal said.

The minister urged Venezuelans to start seeing rabbits “from the point of view of the economic war”.

You can’t make up incredible stories like this one — and in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, you don’t have to, because they’re the only thing not in short supply.