Venezuela's 'Plan Rabbit' encounters 'cultural problem'

[hack89]

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has devised a "rabbit plan" to counter the economic war he says is being waged against his government by "imperialist forces". 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.

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".

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-41265474

Don't know whether to laugh or cry.

[DetlefK]

1. There's a grassroots project for urban gardening. What happened to that?

Is the venezolan government ignoring those initiatives because they weren't the government's idea?

[Amishman]

2. Rule number 1 of raising an animal for meat. Don't name it

They would have been better off encouraging chickens, far less cute in person - especially fast growing meat hybrids like Cornish Rocks