How to properly slaughter and butcher rabbits at home

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1996

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For many people, feeding and caring for fluffy animals is not difficult, but as soon as it comes time to slaughter rabbits, they fall into a stupor. The procedure cannot be called pleasant, but without it, it is absolutely pointless to breed forage rabbits. Breeding rabbits is a favorite pastime of most farmers, since thanks to it, through the slaughter of rabbits, there are always delicious dishes from fresh dietary meat on the dinner table. In addition, the sale of skins and gastronomic delicacies is profitable.

Slaughter of rabbits

What are the signs to determine when it is time to slaughter an animal

The time must be chosen depending on the goals. If you want to get tender rabbit meat, you can kill it any day after the rabbit reaches the desired parameters. If it is important to get not only meat products, but also high-quality skin, some nuances must be taken into account. The stage of molting is of great importance: having killed a rabbit ahead of time, you will get a poor-quality skin, from which half of the villi will fall out after a short time.

Helpful hints for choosing the most suitable time for slaughter:

1. It is better to slaughter those born in the winter months at the age of four months.
2. If okrol happened in the summer months, all moulting stages will be completed in November.
3. Vaccinated individuals cannot be slaughtered if less than 30 days have passed since the procedure.
4. For most breeds, the best time for slaughter is when the average rabbit weighs 1.6 kg.
5. The best period for slaughter is from November 1 to March 15.

Process features

The main mistake of many, especially beginners, rabbit breeders is emotional attachment to animals, because of it it is easy to be horrified just by the thought that at some age you will have to kill them, skin them off and cut them into pieces. Therefore, often newcomers do not dare to carry out reprisals with their own hands.

But there is nowhere to go, sooner or later you will need to collect your thoughts and kill the rabbit. If this is easier, you can ask his forgiveness before slaughtering a rabbit at home. It is important to remember that the faster life leaves the eared, the less suffering it will experience. Before the procedure, it is imperative to take the animal for a veterinary examination: patients cannot be slaughtered. Also, the doctor will tell you how to kill the rabbit as quickly as possible.

If you do not have the opportunity to get advice from a professional, first watch the video on how to prepare a rodent for slaughter and how to butcher it. Remember that in such a matter as the slaughter of a fur animal, a steady hand and speed are important.

What tools will be needed

How many ways there are to quickly slaughter a rabbit, so many options for inventory. But there is also universal equipment, for example, a spacer hanger, with its help it is convenient to remove the skin by hanging the carcass by the hind limbs.

You can easily build such a spacer yourself. It consists of hooks (fastening on a support where the hanger is suspended) and a horizontal hanger tube with sharp hooks (the rabbit's legs cling to them). To better understand how the device should look like, it is better to find its photo on the Internet and examine it in detail.

Bloodless slaughter is more convenient and easiest to carry out with a thick wooden stick, which is popularly called a killer. You can cut carcasses with any large knife. It is imperative to sharpen it well before the procedure, since it is impossible to carefully cut the skin with a blunt blade.

And, of course, not a single slaughter and butchering of a carcass can do without special dishes, where various internal organs will be added. So that after the procedure the room remains relatively clean, before cutting it is necessary to substitute a basin under the rabbit carcass, into which all the blood will be drained.

Slaughter the animal as best as possible

All methods are divided into those that flow with blood and those without it. The latter are much more humane, due to the fact that animals hardly suffer before death.

1. During the bloodless method, the slaughterer's primary task is to shut off the rabbit's central nervous system. Only after the animal has been killed can blood be released from it.
2. During blood flow, the slaughterer simply makes an incision in the artery and leaves the animal in limbo to bleed out until the last red drop leaves the carcass.

The main role in the choice of the method is played by the cultural characteristics of the people, which include the breeder. For example, for adherents of Islam, bloody slaughter is preferable, since it is believed that while the heart muscle contracts, the rate of blood release from the carcass is greater. But in Europe, humanism is in the first place, so they use bloodless methods that relieve the animal from terrible pain.

How to kill an animal in a bloodless way

First of all, the animal must be immobilized and its central nervous system must be turned off in order to remove sensitivity. This is done as follows:

• To cause a quick death, the rabbit grabs its hind legs in its left hand and lowers its head down. After that, with the right hand with the help of a wooden stick, an aimed sharp blow is made to the occipital region. Use maximum strength for this, this is the only way to kill the animal from the first blow and save it from further suffering.
• From a good blow to the right place, the spinal cord is destroyed and instant death occurs. Blood is released through the ears, nose and mouth. Experienced farmers do not need a killing stick; they do it with the edge of their own right hand.

Murder in French

Only a physically strong person, one who has strong arms and a developed shoulder apparatus, can kill an animal in this way at home. Otherwise, after the first time, the goal will not be achieved, respectively, the fluffy will suffer for a long time.

It is necessary to put the rabbit on a horizontal plane, with one hand grasp both his legs, the other - his ears. You need to grab it as tightly as possible so that at the most important second the animal does not slip out of your palms.

After the rabbit relaxes and stops twitching, you should sharply spread your arms on different sides. From a strong jerk inside the carcass, vital arteries will rupture and death will occur in a second. Better to watch a video describing this technique first.

Electric current for early slaughter

You can quickly kill a rabbit with a strong discharge of current, but this method requires a special device: an electric cord at one end of which there are 2 sharp metal pins, and on the other - a plug.

The first pin should be carefully inserted into the animal's buttock, the second - into the back of the head between the ears or into the temple. The minimum effective current is 5 amperes. After completing the preparatory steps, you need to turn on the stun gun in the network, and as soon as the animal is electrocuted, it will die immediately.

Slaughter fracture

In order to take the life of the animal at home, you can turn its head with a sharp movement. To do this, you need to cover the back of the body with your right hand, and your neck with your left (fingers should close under the chin). In order to break the cervical vertebrae, you need to twist the left arm at least 250 ° C.

Air embolism

To kill in this way, it is necessary to let air through the veins. Take a large syringe or rubber bulb and blow as much air as possible into the vein in the rabbit's ear. This method cannot be called the most humane, since death occurs after a moment of suffering of the animal.

Firing pin

To slaughter rabbits in this way, you need to purchase a pin-needle. This is a special device that shoots a needle. The main thing that is required is to correctly define the zone, relf prick. To do this, you need to mentally draw two lines: the right eye - the left ear and the left eye - the right ear. You need to shoot as accurately as possible at the point of their intersection.

The animal will die instantly. In this way, rabbits are usually slaughtered in countries where bloody methods are prohibited by law.

Best time for slaughter

So at what age are rabbits slaughtered, and how to properly prepare them for slaughter? Slaughtering a farm rabbit at home requires a certain time. The time of killing should be determined individually in each case. But one way or another, you should always take into account the date of birth:

1. Rabbits were born in the first month of summer - they need to be slaughtered around the beginning of winter at six months of age, provided that they are of normal weight.
2. The appearance of the young rabbits occurred in July - the ideal time for slaughter - the middle period of winter (from December 15 to January 15).
3. Animals were born at the end of the summer season or in the first days of autumn - they are slaughtered at the end of January.
4. The birth of rabbits took place in early January - they can be cut in late March - early April.

These juices are very conditional; first of all, it is worth focusing on the purpose of breeding and the state of health of the animal. Much depends on the intensity of the feeding. For example, if a rabbit eats an insufficient amount of feed per day, he simply will not have time to gain weight by the allotted time, for this he needs to be held for a few more days in order to have time to fatten and replenish the weight loss.

How to prepare for slaughter

How to slaughter a farm rabbit correctly and not harm the skin? Every rabbit breeder should know the basic rules for preparing for slaughter:

1. The rabbit must be hungry before slaughter. Individuals chosen for killing are kept separate from their fellows. During the day before the procedure, the animals should not be given food (you can only drink). This is necessary so that all feces leave the rabbit's body during life and cannot harm the meat and skin during slaughter.
2. A visit to the vet should not be neglected. It is important to ensure that all individuals are completely healthy. The meat of a sick animal is dangerous for a person who eats it.
3. Pregnant rabbits and newly born cubs that are still actively growing are not subject to slaughter.
4. If the rabbit is large, the killer must firmly hold the animal so that it does not break loose.
5. If there is a child in the house, care must be taken to ensure that he is not present during the procedure, otherwise there is a high likelihood of serious injury to the fragile child's psyche.

Skinning a rabbit

To properly skin the carcass of a dead rabbit, you must do the following:

• Hang the carcass by the hind legs on the spacer.
• Make a circular cut around each knee. We must try to work with the knife as carefully as possible in order to damage less skin. Make another cut on the skin along the path of the inner contour of the legs to the tail zone.
• With a minimum of effort, begin to pull the skin in the direction of the front legs.
• Cut off the tail, both ears. It is important to try to cut as close to the base as possible. Make circular incisions in the wrist of each forelimb. Cut the skin around the eyes and muzzle of the animal.
• Continue to gently pull the skin, since the ears have already been cut off, it will come off very easily from the head.

It is imperative to remove the skin only after killing and completely releasing the blood from the animal. After completing the procedure, you can start dressing the skin.

Skinning and conservation

The removed skin must be pulled onto a special frame and the remaining muscle and adipose tissue of the animal must be removed from it. This can only be done with a sharp knife. Movements should be at right angles so as not to accidentally damage the entire surface of the hide.

The second stage is conservation. It is necessary to stretch the skin on a rule (a special device that visually resembles the letter "A", which consists of 2 slats and a jumper). It is necessary to ensure that the adjacent parts of the skin do not touch, and its edges are not bent, otherwise the product will start to rot and become unusable.

You need to store the rule in a ventilated room, the air temperature in which does not exceed 30 ° C. Do not allow direct sunlight to hit the skin, otherwise it will dry out and begin to crack. Dampness and cold have a negative effect on the condition of the skin.

To protect your rabbit's fur from moths, place naphthalene or similar preparations nearby.

Long-term conservation is not the best way to store it. It is important to quickly find a use for the skins, for example, hand over to a sewing enterprise or an industrial factory for processing furs.

Technological scheme for cutting carcasses:

• Processing meat should begin with an incision along the abdomen, close to the pelvic area. The next incision should go from the lower abdomen towards the sternum.
• Use your hand to push the wall of the belly and carefully remove the insides. It is important to try not to damage either the gallbladder or the bladder, so that their contents do not get onto the meat.
• Cut off the head in the region of the last cervical vertebra.
• Cut out the remaining internal organs, excluding the kidneys and their fat.
• Make incisions along the line of the hock joint along the hind legs.
• Shape the carcass. To do this, you need to make a small cut on each side, from 3 to 4 ribs, insert the front paws there, and fasten the legs in the area of ​​the hock joints. The alignment of the limbs should be done along the outer edge.

Helpful hints

There are some secrets that will help you understand that the molt has already ended:

• Dark spots are visible on the rabbit's body (the rule does not apply to individuals of white color).
• Any molt starts at the head and goes towards the tail, so the readiness check should start with the tail.
• Rabbits molt 2 times a year.
• The first molt stops completely at four months of age, the second - after another four months.
• The easiest way to find out if an animal is molting is to pull out a piece of fur. If no effort is made to do this, then the rabbit is still molting.

The ideal chopping knife is chosen according to the following principles:

• The sharper the blade, the better.
• The size of the knife should not be small, but not too large.It is permissible to use your favorite kitchen knife, which is most comfortable to work with at home.

Now you know what you need to slaughter an animal and how to slaughter a rabbit correctly without damaging the skin.