South Africa is hopping mad about a new public artwork honoring Nelson Mandela after officials discovered a tiny rabbit figurine perched inside the statue’s ear.

The sculpture in Pretoria had to be completed quickly, following the beloved leader’s death on December 5, 2013. The artists, Andre Prinsloo and Ruhan Janse van Vuuren, were told they couldn’t sign their names to the 30-foot-tall sculpture.

Discreetly, they thought, they placed a small rabbit inside Mandela’s ear, a trademark of their work and a reminder of how fast they had finished the piece—haas means both rabbit and haste in Afrikaans.

Their intentions were good, but when word of the bunny leaked out, South African leaders were not happy. Mogomotsi Mogodiri, a government spokesman, spoke to the BBC about the rabbit in January, explaining that “we don’t think it’s appropriate, because Nelson Mandela never had a rabbit in his ear.”

I think the rabbit sculptors put in the ear of the bronze statue of Nelson Mandela is unique and he would of loved it pic.twitter.com/vtTtBijV6L — Eden Peel (@Eden_Peel) January 22, 2014

It’s hard to imagine how one might mistake the creature’s presence in an artwork as literal truth, but South African officials were insistent, and the charming creature has since been removed.

Luckily, the little bunny already has an offer of a new home: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has volunteered to adopt it. In a press release, PETA’s associate director, Mimi Bekhechi, made an official request, saying:

Mandela cared about cruelty to animals. . . . We would be honored to use the bronze rabbit, the same animal who proudly leaps across PETA’s logo, to honor Mandela’s vision of a more peaceful, kinder world.

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