Message from Venezuelan authorities to starving citizens : Eat your pets

Nicolas Maduro has revealed a plan to combat Venezuela's food crisis by encouraging people to breed rabbits for meat, but acknowledged a "setback" when participants in a pilot project adopted the bunnies as pets.

Unveiling "Plan Rabbit", the Venezuelan president described it as an "extremely good" initiative to provide an alternative source of animal protein, "because rabbits breed like... rabbits."

Freddy Bernal, Venezuela's minister for urban agriculture, visiting a rabbit farm

The scheme - designed to resist the "economic war" Mr Maduro says is being waged by the "empire" - had however suffered teething difficulties.

The minister for urban agriculture, Freddy Bernal, had handed out baby rabbits to 15 communities as part of a trial, Mr Maduro recounted to much laughter from assembled ministers. 

"When he returned, surprise! The people had the bunnies with little bows and they were keeping them as pets," he said. 

Venezuelans have rushed to Colombia to buy food and medicines amid national shortages CREDIT:AFP

Mr Bernal blamed a "cultural problem," explaining to Tuesday's cabinet meeting: "A lot of people give names to rabbits, put on a bow, they take it to their house, they take the rabbit to sleep in their bed."

But, he insisted, Venezuelans must adjust their attitudes towards rabbits and see them "from the point of view of the economic war".

Outlining his plan to reposition the rabbit's image, Mr Bernal said "we need a publicity campaign on radio, TV, in newspapers, in cartoons, everywhere, so that the people understand that rabbits aren't pets but two and a half kilos of meat"

Venezuela's food crisis has caused record levels of child malnutrition and reduced many to rifling through rubbish bins in search of something to eat. A survey earlier this year indicated that 75 per cent of Venezuelans have lost an average of 19lb as the country plunges into economic collapse.

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro  CREDIT:REUTERS