When I told my friends in Australia that it was the "Year of the Rabbit" for the Chinese, they were horrified.

Rabbits, in Australia, are terrible feral pests, who do untold damage to the environment. They've been so bad and have reproduced to reach such huge numbers that a vast "rabbit-proof" fence was erected to keep them out of agricultural areas.

They have even been subjected to biological warfare, with two killer diseases purposefully released to wipe them out.