Outrageous: Argentine official suspended for penguin meat proposal

2012-08-10 12:50:38(Beijing Time)  SINA English

An Argentine official wrongly claimed plans were afoot to feed pigeons to poorer state school children as means of reducing the bird population. (file picture from the Associated Press)

An Argentine official has been suspended from his post, after proposing local schools to feed poor students with penguin meat, a possible way to contain the country's penguin population.
Oscar de Allende, an environmental official in Cordoba, put forward the suggestion earlier this week, saying penguin meat could also be included in the government's program for public schools to offer food and clothes to indigent students.

In an interview by a local radio station, Mr Allende claimed that the Cordoba region had an estimated 600 million penguins, which should be considered an 'abundant resource' rather than pets. He also said the authorities were drawing up plans for the initiative to help control the bird population.
But senior officials did not sit well with the brash idea, denying any such plans existed. Cordoba's provincial governor later announced Allende was suspended for his "controversial" statement, and a project to feed pigeon meat to students was "nonsense".

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