(Video above: Rick & Bubba tackle socialism)

Alabama-based, nationally-syndicated talk radio hosts Rick Burgess and Bill “Bubba” Bussey took to the airwaves Thursday to address the rise of socialism in the United States, pointing to horrifying recent events in Venezuela as evidence that the socialist system simply does not work in practice.

“Sadly, a large number in our country, they just almost yearn for us to become more like the great socialistic societies — ‘If we could just be more like places like Venezuela,’” said Burgess. “Well, Venezuela at one time was a pretty happening place, until socialism took over. Sad story, Bubba. Starving Venezuelans, guess where they’re finding food? In the zoo.”

Burgess referenced recent reports that the food shortages in Venezuela have become so widespread that zoo animals are not only starving, they are actually being stolen and eaten by local residents who are desperate to survive.

“If people are breaking into zoos and eating the animals that are also starving, things are coming apart,” he concluded.

Bussey laid the blame at the feet of Hugo Chávez, the former Venezuelan president and socialist revolutionary who died in 2013, and the subsequent Nicolás Maduro administration, which has continued its predecessor’s socialist policies.

“We have a country with a booming economy, that has a vibrant oil production, and along comes Hugo Chávez and his group,” he explained. “They basically take control of the government. They nationalize all the refineries, throw out the private investment, run out the United States, and then they’re going to keep all that money for themselves in Venezuela. And now they’re to the point of financial collapse and people are eating zoo animals. What happened in between those two points? Socialism… And I’ll tell you what it is, it’s crooked politicians. At least in a capitalistic democracy you can eventually get them out. It may take a little time… But you can make a change. When somebody has all the media, all the education, all the guns, you have no choice.”

Burgess’s brother, Greg, also noted recent pictures showing top Venezuelan government officials “still wearing luxury watches.”

“That’s how that socialism works, now, everybody’s suffering — or, even when it’s clicking everybody’s average — but the ruling class does not live that way,” he said.

“They rant about equality, about anti-imperialism, about capitalism, but there is no problem in the ruling class in Venezuela,” Bussey concurred. “But the working people below them are breaking into zoos to eat.”

Check out the full segment in the video above.