…and this is a 
Another reason to hate tyrannical, insane North Korean dictators
Category: Weirdness
Posted on: April 7, 2007 10:06 AM, by PZ Myers
His people are starving, and Kim Jong-il is roaming the countryside, eating up giant rabbits.
Karl Szmolinsky of Eberswalde faces a grim Easter.
His gold medal pride, 'Robert der Grosse' , the largest rabbit in recorded Prussian history , is missing and believed dead in North Korea.
The 24 pound UberBunny was sent to Pyongyang last year along with 11 others "with the aim of setting up a breeding program to alleviate famine " , but they ended up on the table at Dear Leader Kim Jong-il's February 16th birthday banquet.
This is what happens when megalomaniacs rule — not even the bunnies are safe.
Comments
Posted by: Caledonian | April 7, 2007 10:19 AM
Why precisely did this man feel it necessary to send breeding stock to North Korea, again?
A fool and his resources are soon parted.
Posted by: Elliott | April 7, 2007 10:30 AM
It just goes to show you: no kindly deed will go unpunished.
I recall seeing photos of his rabbits in the Toronto newspapers, and thinking just how well one of them would complement a bottle of Moulin a Vent . . .
Posted by: Steven | April 7, 2007 10:55 AM
George Bush and Kim Jong-il should be burst like a pinata to see if pure concentrated liquid crazy comes out. Perhaps it will be a new compound of some use. Mabye we can make crazy glue with it.
Posted by: amph | April 7, 2007 11:07 AM
Shocking:
The charge' d'affaires at the Berlin embassy of the hopping mad Hermit Kingdom Hasenpfepper fiend has issued a denial of the alleged rodenticide
By now everyone should know that rabbits are not rodents.
Posted by: kurage | April 7, 2007 11:33 AM
Caledonian -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/01/AR2007020101797.html
Kim Jong-il has been pushing rabbit and goat breeding recently, the theory being that these animals can be raised just about anywhere, even in mountainous North Korea. The North Koreans were the ones who approached Szmolinsky, telling him that his giant rabbits would help feed people (presumably, people less well-off than Kim Jong-il).
It was a ridiculous plan to begin with - as the article notes, giant rabbits consume proportionally giant amounts of vegetables - but Szmolinsky's motives were purely philanthropic, and it wasn't as if he sent North Korea a bunch of unsolicited rabbits.
Posted by: Caledonian | April 7, 2007 11:55 AM
Permit me to be more specific:
I know the purpose the rabbits were sent with. Why in the world did this gentleman think that any resources he sent would be utilized properly?
North Korea is starving not because it's inhospitable to agriculture, but because its government has squandered and misused every resource available to it.
Posted by: Mike Haubrich | April 7, 2007 12:43 PM
No wonder he's "So Ronery."
Posted by: Chinchillazilla | April 7, 2007 12:44 PM
Who would eat such a snuggly, floppy-looking creature?
Man, I hate that guy.
Posted by: Colugo | April 7, 2007 1:34 PM
While eugenics is discussed in regard to debunking distorted claims about Darwinism made by IDists, it should be kept in mind that coercive eugenic practices occur in today's world.
Eugenic infanticide in North Korea
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20587474-2703,00.html
"The North Korean regime's obsession with racial purity has led to the killing of disabled infants and forced abortions for women suspected of conceiving their babies by Chinese fathers, according to a growing body of testimony from defectors."
North Korean defectors report gas chamber experiments
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/this_world/3440771.stm
Death and terror in North Korean gulag system
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3071466/
Children starve in North Korea's hidden gulag
http://tinyurl.com/3x8a2t
Posted by: Lago | April 7, 2007 1:51 PM
Poor Bunny...
Posted by: MarkR | April 7, 2007 5:04 PM
"Lagomorphicide" is too much of a mouthful.Posted by: Chris Thompson | April 7, 2007 5:14 PM
They have changed it to lepicide.
Posted by: Russell Seitz | April 7, 2007 5:32 PM
"Lagomorphicide" is too much of a mouthful.
-- MarkR |05:04 PM
They have changed it to lepicide.
--Chris Thompson |05:14 PM
Want me to change it to 'orgy of lagomorphagy'?
I've already promoted the bereaved Herr Szmolinsky to
"Meisterkaninchenzüchter of Brandenburg" to get the wascally Wendish rabbit fanciers off Adamant's back.
Posted by: David Harmon | April 7, 2007 5:37 PM
It was a ridiculous plan to begin with - as the article notes, giant rabbits consume proportionally giant amounts of vegetables
I wouldn't say "ridiculous", because (like pigs and goats) they can eat stuff humans can't, effectively turning stray biomass into meat. That doesn't necessarily mean it would have been workable in practice, but this suggests (or confirms) that the real problem is with the country's leadership.
Posted by: Stanton | April 7, 2007 6:06 PM
Somehow, I'm surprised that Kim Jong Il didn't have Herr Szmolinsky kidnapped and put to death yet.
Posted by: AgnosticOracle | April 7, 2007 7:03 PM
Having just watch the latest South Park on Tivo last night I've got to wonder if there might be a link between North Korea and the American Catholic League.
Posted by: Interrobang | April 7, 2007 10:12 PM
But rabbits are so delicious... Great fur, too.
Posted by: One Eyed Jack | April 8, 2007 1:54 AM
Oddly enough I heard about a breeding program for giant dictators a few years back. It had some very promising early success. They required little food, but you did have to feed their inflated egos 24/7.
Ultimately the program was doomed. During processing, the butchers discovered very little usable meat. As it turns out, they were mostly bullsh*t and hot air. We should have known.
OEJ
Posted by: Kristine | April 8, 2007 1:32 PM
It's my understanding that rabbit meat is too lean to sustain a person who isn't getting the requisite fats from other sources, anyway. So the plan was totally bogus.
Kim Jong-il is ravaging his country to satisfy himself and I too would be leery of any "breeding programs" or other "improvements" promoted by the government of North Korea.
Posted by: dgaicun | April 8, 2007 6:09 PM
Brandenburgian breeder becomes belligerent because bumbling barbarian bureaucrats brazenly banqueted on beloved brobdingnagian bunnies? Boy!
Posted by: Mr Gronk | April 8, 2007 9:43 PM
Just how far upwind is Berlin from Chernobyl, incidentally? For that is one badass rabbit.