Killing rabbits

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Killing rabbits
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Snap Cap

Joined: 16 Apr 2006
Posts: 553
Location: Outside a warren armed to the teeth.

Posted: Fri Jun 23, 06 4:46 am Post subject:
I allways break thier necks after I have shot them as it stops rigamortice setting in and so makes them easier to skin.

Purple Martin

Joined: 20 Jun 2006
Posts: 57
Location: Canberra

Posted: Fri Jun 23, 06 5:08 am Post subject: Re: Killing rabbits

cab wrote:

An overheard conversation last week at the allotment, between two old timers discussing how to kill rabbits. One was of the opinion that necking is quickest, the other was a sound fan of a blow to the head. Both were adamant that their own way was quickest and most humane.

Which is best?

Rabbits and humans are basically the same: mammals.

Which way would you prefer to die - to have your neck broken and then suffocate slowly while in pain from a fractured vertebra (which you can still feel in detail) while you are unable to move from the neck down, OR to be knocked out cold in an instant?

If I had to choose, I'd go for the blow to the head.

JPBearclaw

Joined: 16 Jun 2006
Posts: 60
Location: Essex

Posted: Fri Jun 23, 06 8:01 am Post subject:
im with spankey here gripping the birds neck with your fore fingers and pushing the back of the skull / top of spine with your thumb while pulling in with your fore finger works for me, seen to many headless birds on shoots, looks real bad

Blue Sky

Joined: 30 Jan 2005
Posts: 7658
Location: France

Posted: Fri Jun 23, 06 8:58 am Post subject: Re: Killing rabbits

Purple Martin wrote:

Did one last night. Definately quick hard blow to the back of the head vote from this corner. Instant.

Rabbit chili for tea tonight.

Bodger

Joined: 23 May 2006
Posts: 13524

Posted: Fri Jun 23, 06 12:54 pm Post subject:

When you give the old bunny a rabbit chop make sure that you aim for the back of the neck rather than the back of the head . This method of killing your rabbit can lead to a little bruising of the meat .

People who sell their rabbits tend to use a method known amongst the fraternity ( not the Masons

) as chinning .
To do this you take hold of the rabbit and put the heel of your hand under the rabbits chin and push backwards sharply ,breaking its neck and killing it instantly .
Its impossible to do the rabbit chop properley to a rabbit that is enmeshed in a rabbit net . If the rabbits are popping out everywhere or if you are using a long net its much simpler and quicker to chin the rabbits and move onto the next rather than to have to take out each rabbit from the net before giving it the 'coup de gras !'

I have loads of rabbit recipes and its a good job because at the moment we are surrounded wall to wall by bunnies !

Purple Martin

Joined: 20 Jun 2006
Posts: 57
Location: Canberra

Posted: Sat Jun 24, 06 4:53 am Post subject:
Lots of people who talk about breaking necks seem to think that it kills the rabbit instantly. Unfortunately this is not true: all it does is paralyse instantly so the rabbit cannot move or breathe. The rabbit is still conscious and still able to see you, and it slowly suffocates to death.

Bodger

Joined: 23 May 2006
Posts: 13524

Posted: Sat Jun 24, 06 6:23 am Post subject:

PM
If the spinal column is severed then surely no messages get in and out of the brain, so possibly wrongly I thought that shutdown was about as quick as it could be .
Its a bit grueome but I thought that this was exactly the same as when you pull the neck on a chicken. The nerves flutter straight away and its good night Vienna !
Nobody likes killing another animal but I genuinly can't think of a more humane metod. I must have killed thousands of rabbits in my time but I would have to think long and hard if for a minute I thought that my despatch of them wasn't as good as it could be .

Purple Martin

Joined: 20 Jun 2006
Posts: 57
Location: Canberra

Posted: Sat Jun 24, 06 10:32 pm Post subject:

When the spinal cord is severed in the neck, no messages get in or out to anywhere below the neck. So you can't move, breathe, or feel anything below the neck.

Messages still get in and out above the neck: you can still see, hear, feel, and you are still awake. Think about it: the optic nerve goes directly from the eye to the brain, and hasn't been damaged by the broken neck. The same goes for other nerves above the neck (do a google for the 12 cranial nerves to find out what is still working). Your heart is still beating because it has its own automatic timer (it does not need nerve input to keep going). Remember Christopher Reeve? He had a broken neck but was still fully awake, all he needed was a ventilator to stay alive.

So if your neck breaks, you die slowly from not being able to breathe, kind of like suffocating. That's why I say a blow to the head is more kind: instant knockout. By all means break the neck after knocking them out to make sure they don't wake up again ten minutes later.

Gervase

Joined: 17 Nov 2004
Posts: 8655

Posted: Sun Jun 25, 06 10:57 am Post subject:

Insteresting. Hanging, involving a similar sudden and drastic dislocation of the vertebrae, was seen as the most humane method of execution. Albert Pierrepoint reckoned that death was pretty much instantaneous. And yet French studies of guillotined criminals seem to have established that a degree of consciousness remains even if the head is completely severed.
I tend to use a priest, but really more for convenience than any degree of sentiment. If a rabbit is enmeshed it can be tricky to stretch it enough to chin it or twist the neck, whereas the priest can be used even if the bunny's wrapped up.

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45425
Location: Essex

Posted: Sun Jun 25, 06 11:07 am Post subject:
What's a priest?

Bodger

Joined: 23 May 2006
Posts: 13524

Posted: Sun Jun 25, 06 11:09 am Post subject:
Gervase ! Be honest ! How many times have you given your knuckles a smacking on a cold winters day ? A bit like playing conkers in the school play ground , it bl**dy hurts ! Bashing the bunny on the head is also going to lead to some bleeding so for practical reasons I'll stick to the method I know best. I'm sure that we are only talking of split seconds !

Gervase

Joined: 17 Nov 2004
Posts: 8655

Posted: Sun Jun 25, 06 12:42 pm Post subject:

tahir wrote:

What's a priest?

A little club - often made of wood or horn, with some lead inserted into one end to give it a bit of weight. Called a priest because it administers the last rites!

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45425
Location: Essex

Posted: Sun Jun 25, 06 12:48 pm Post subject:
Ta

Biff Vernon

Joined: 10 Jun 2006
Posts: 15
Location: Lincolnshire

Posted: Sun Jun 25, 06 4:03 pm Post subject:
All very well but how do you catch the little, err, bunnies in the first place?

Bodger

Joined: 23 May 2006
Posts: 13524

Posted: Sun Jun 25, 06 4:57 pm Post subject:

Biff theres stacks of ways to catch your bunnies . !
Do you want me to list them .
It doesn't always seem that way but we are cleverer than the "average bun Boo Boo "
Seriously I would be pepared to go through the various methods of catching rabbits if people thought that there was a need to go through them . There are of course loads of books available that probably deal with the techniques far more clearly than I could !

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