Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
• Hammer
You can find a good selection of knives for harvesting and skinning at Lem Products
( www.lemproducts.com/product/3939/Knives ).
If you are slaughtering rabbits for home use, there are two ways to kill the rabbit. The neck
can be dislocated by firmly grasping the hind legs and head. Then it is stretched to full length
and with a hard, sharp pull, the head is bent backward to dislocate the neck. The other way to
butcher the rabbit is to stun it with a hard blow behind the ears with a blunt object such as a
stout stick or hammer.
Using a rope attached to one of the hind legs, hang the rabbit with the head down. Use a sharp
knife to remove the head and allow the blood to drain from the carcass completely. Rabbits
are small, and it only takes a few minutes for all the blood to drain. The forefeet should be re-
moved next right at the joint. Use the knife to cut the skin around the hock joint, where the
thigh meets the lower leg bone. Make a cut down the legs toward the tail, and peel the hide
down to the tail. Remove the tail and pull the skin down the rest of the body. Then, set the
skin aside. Wash the knife to remove any blood clots or fur.
Next, make a cut starting near the anus down the abdomen to the sternum. Cut through the en-
tire abdominal muscle, but make sure you do not cut too deep and cut into the intestinal tract.
You want to avoid this to keep from contaminating the meat with fecal material. Remove the
intestinal tract and lungs and discard into the garbage. The heart, kidney, and liver can be re-
moved and saved if desired. Once the abdominal contents are removed, take the body off the
rope and cut off the hind feet at the hock. The carcass should be washed with clean, running
water to remove fur, blood clots, and other debris. The carcass then should be placed in sturdy
freezer bags and stored either at refrigerator temperatures (35 to 40°F) or placed in the freezer
if the meat is not consumed within two days.
Finding an outside butcher
Finding an outside butcher to harvest your rabbits for personal consumption is not usually dif-
ficult. You can check online, in the phone book, or with your state meat inspection agency.
Your state meat inspection agency licenses most local butchers, so they should keep a listing
of butchers in your area that they can pass on to you. Your local feed store also may have no-
tices about butchers that are willing to travel to farms and butcher animals. These butchers op-
erate mobile processing units called MPUs. They usually carry everything with them they will
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