Not getting attached

[kotapony]

It not only kills instantly, but it shuts down the body, there may be twitching, but the brain and body are dead.

It's the twitching part I have a hard time with. Rationally I can know that it's dead, but I'm still working on getting myself over the twitching. So far my experience has all been with cows my husband has put down. His preferred method is a sledge hammer between the eyes. I'm just not strong enough nor accurate enough with a sledge to do that (and it wouldn't apply to the rabbits regardless - talk about overkill!).

I thought hard about using something like the rabbit wrangler when the time comes to start butchering, but I do like the idea of letting them eat and then lights out with a single shot. I've decided the dispatch is something I need to do myself and not pawn off on my husband. But having never deliberately killed anything before, it's going to take a pretty good pep talk to myself.

 

[MaggieJ]

Katie, you can ease into it by getting your husband to instruct you and then killing just one or two in a batch. Then the next time, you do most of it and before you know it you will be able to handle all stages. The twitching, kicking etc. can be alarming. We have decided to use two shots now, even though the second is rarely really needed. It just helps me to know that the rabbit is really dead.

 

[TariLynn]

I also asked on another post about this and I am still trying to transition myself and my family. We have raised pigs and chickens for meat but none of these animals were butchered by us and the only chickens we raised to eat were broilers. No problem eating them because they are icky and not very smart. Rabbits are a tough one though cause I can't get past the pet thing...I even bought a meat grinder because I thought if I ground up the meat at first it would be an easier transition but my girls 12, 16 and 18 are kind of appalled at the idea that mom bought a meat grinder for bunnies!

I sincerely want to try and do this but I don't know if I can get everyone on board. They have eaten other people's rabbits and even love rabbit and noodles. We have rabbits for 4H and we have only raised a few litters that we culled by selling so now it is hard to get them to see the bunnies as food/livestock.

Has anyone had this much trouble transitioning or as my daughters say, "Going over to the dark side?"

 

[MaggieJ]

Since your daughters will eat rabbit once it is on the dinner plate, I think the best approach would be to go ahead and butcher some rabbits when they are ready. Don't hide it, but don't push them into participating or even being around when it is happening. Put the meat in the freezer for a few weeks after butchering, then cook it up without comment unless they ask about it. Then say, matter-of-factly that yes, it is rabbit.

Your idea of grinding the meat is good... Easier to accept if they don't see the shape of the rabbit cuts. Rabbit burgers, rabbit chili con carne, rabbit pot pie, rabbit pasta sauce... You get the idea.

Once they have been eating rabbit at home for a while, they will, I hope, begin to regard it as normal.

 

[Miss M]

Thankfully, our kids have never had a problem eating the rabbits we raise. When we were finished with our first butchering day, our son (then 8) came out and asked, "So, when are we eating rabbit?" They both get excited every time they ask what's for dinner, and find out it's rabbit.

Often they have an enclosure where the rabbit is happily munching on grass right up to the point of being shot. Talk about dying painlessly while doing what you love!

This is precisely what we do. A milk crate loaded with grass, yummy weeds, and other things bunnies love. It isn't unusual for the rabbit I'm skinning to still have a big leaf hanging out of its mouth.

You are right about the twitching, though. You have to watch out for the first half a minute or so. I had a dead rabbit open my arm up once. I've learned... shoot the rabbit, then IF you are going to remove it from the box to bleed out (which I like to do, so they don't bleed all over the grass in the box), remove the rabbit immediately once the muscles seize up (from lack of communication with the brain). Put it down on the ground, and wait for movement to stop. As long as it's only the back legs that are doing the moving, I know the lights are out. If anything else moves, I'll put a second pellet in. But that's rare.

 

[akane]

My husband had to be gone the first few times I butchered things starting with quail. Quail and roosters were not very difficult because they had usually pissed me off so much by the time I whacked their heads off that the only thing I cared about was them dying quickly without suffering. Then when it came to rabbit I had to cut it up in portions and spend 2 weeks convincing my husband that rabbit front legs look like chicken wings. Then it was another 3 weeks convincing him that a block of rabbit ribs or back meat did not look like rabbit. Not that he could even tell one part from the other when I told him to get a certain piece out. While he'll handle the meat and no longer yell at me when packages of rabbit are falling out of the over stuffed freezer right after butchering day he still won't cook me any unless I debone it into unidentifiable strips. I'm working on the meat grinder. The cats decided to help my arguments this week by one of them developing a $100 urinary tract problem with unknown future costs that would likely be solved by 100% raw diet instead of partial kibble diet.

Usually I can grab the shot rabbits by the back legs with one hand keeping them from scratching and scoop the shoulders to flip them out of the pen so they finish bleeding and kicking elsewhere while I shoot the 2nd one. It's not like they should be able to feel what I'm doing at that point so I don't have to be real gentle about it. My pen does slowly shift down the path to keep the live rabbits away from the bloodied areas. I think I've only had 1 that truly needed the 2nd pellet I put in it. Occasionally I wonder when they kick a lot but it's always only the back legs and their eyes are dilated, unblinking, and not moving. This one though I aimed too straight down and it just fell over sideways and laid there blinking without kicking. 1 out of what has to be 100s by now isn't bad odds. You don't want to know what happened to the first 2 roosters I tried to chop the heads off of. I'm almost as bad with an axe as I am with a knife.

 

[Robin]

Oh man, speaking of the back legs going...
The second ever rabbit we slaughtered scared the heck out of my husband. It was still for quite some time, but when he layed it on it's side to remove the head it gave a very strong kick and fell into the kitchen sink. He shouted "Oh god, it's still alive", but it clearly wasn't. It just surprised him, and it was actually quite funny to see him jump out of his sink at a 4.5lb fuzzy rabbit "zombie". I should also add that this particular rabbit was a mean, nasty little rabbit. I joked that it was the last bit of evil leaving her body.

the twitching can be unnerving, but you'll get over it. I've had rabbits that I dressed quickly enough that it still twitched a little after it was all done, I was just rinsing the last bit of blood and stray hairs off the dressed out carcass. you could see the tiny little muscle fibers "pinching" just a bit. It was weird, that's for sure.

 

[currituckbun]

I have not had to kill any of mine yet, I just got into it just a few months ago and have been growing my herd. The first litter is now 3 weeks old. They are very cute now. However, I don't think it will be hard to do when they are older. Those cute little balls of fluff that I first bought for breeders have grown. They have scratched me badly , run at and kicked me, and hissed at me. I plan on long sleeves, gloves, and a pellet gun. One in particular will not be a sad day... I think I will enjoy every bite. She has been the inflictor of many of these assaults. Not a nice rabbit. Her days are numbered to when I can grow a replacement. The others will not be as easy but they are delicious and like akane said. Pets---->food. Not so bad.

Her evilness ...Clover. [album]507[/album]

 

[akane]

I've had some still twitching after butchering for 2hours and then driving them 30mins to give one to a friend. She asked how fresh it was and I opened the bag to show her. It seems to happen when it's really hot out. That particular group gave me heat stroke because it was over 100F heat index that day. In cool weather rigor mortis sets in before I get through them all instead. I did just 2 last week and they were stiff before I got them inside to finish cutting in to portions.

I don't actually get scratched up too badly butchering except that one litter we never handled who screamed, bit, and thrashed about when I caught them. Those guys were deadly. It's when I go colony inspecting and handle everyone beyond what it takes to get them in a cage and back out again. I went to flip an 8 week old over a few months back to check gender and I gained a scar on the back of my hand from the base of my index finger to the opposite side of my wrist because the little monster rolled in to a ball and swung a back foot up to my hand holding his shoulders. I have learned to avoid alcohol based soaps and sprays since I got rabbits.

 

[Kyle@theWintertime]

I don't name my meat rabbits, that helps me stay detached. If I have to call them anything, I call 'em "meaties." I also don't handle them very much...I bust out my pets and show rabbits a lot, and that too helps...I can hug a bunny and not feel sad about sending a meatie-rabbit to the freezer.

One thing that helps is that the meat I eat? I know for a fact that it was from animals who were never abused or neglected, animals who lived good lives and were killed as humanely as possible. I don't enjoy killing, but I'd rather do it myself and know it was done right than trust it to someone else in some slaughterhouse where I would never know it if the animal suffered.

One other thing that helps me not get too attached is to frequently consider how much I like eating meat. When I start to feel badly, I go look up recipes I want to try out. I have a nice big buck who'll be killed and won't even have time to be frozen before I cook him next week...and this week he's suddenly developed cute habits such as greeting me when I walk in the room, and nuzzling my hand when I feed him. I may actually miss that dang rabbit, so...I've been spending time drooling over all the delicious ways to prepare him for myself and our dinner guests. He will be a very nice main course for a dinner party!

Hope that helps.