Stock Photo - COTHEN - A lot of commotion in the Netherlands about the initiative of chief cook Arjan Smit of restaurant Pronckeer in Cothen near by Utrecht, to put muskrat on the menu. Trapped rats are now being destroyed by order of the water boards. It is forbidden to eat them. Smit is furious about that. The dispose of the muskrat meat is a ""sheer waste of food"", especially since the government annually spends 30 million euros for the preservation of the Dutch dikes, to catch these 'tossing' rats. Muskrats, according tot Smit, is the best free range meat that exists. In Belgium is muskrat a delicacy there. They called these rats ""water rabbits"". The province of Utrecht wants to give the restaurateur an exemption for serving the protected starling -with these birds got Pronckheer last year world wide attention- and muskrat. Foto: VidiPhoto dpa - NETHERLANDS OUT NO WIRE SERVICE |. - Cothen/Utrecht/Netherlands