How to butcher a rabbit: schemes and methods at home for beginners

Beginner rabbit breeders need to know how to slaughter and butcher a rabbit on their own. After all, these animals are bred for meat and for skins. Rabbits are slaughtered in a relatively humane way - the animals are beaten with a stick on the head with all their might. There are a number of other methods of slaughter, but they are rarely used on home farms. Every rabbit breeder will sooner or later have to kill these animals on their own.

At what age are rabbits slaughtered

The timing of slaughtering domestic rabbits is influenced by two main indicators: the weight of the animal and the condition of the fur. It is not recommended to slaughter animals whose mass is less than 2 kilograms. It is undesirable to send animals for slaughter at the time of molting.

Meat

If you urgently need to slaughter a rabbit for meat, it is desirable that its weight exceeds 2 kilograms. Animals weigh 1.2-1.6 kg at the age of 2 months. After cutting, the mass of meat is no more than 0.6-0.8 kg. Little rabbits try not to score. Indeed, in 2-3 months they eat almost everything, grow well on grass or hay and quickly gain weight. There is no point in sending animals to slaughter if they have not gained the required weight.

At 4 months old, a rabbit weighs about 3 kilograms. If desired, such an animal can be slaughtered for meat. At 6 months of age, the weight of rabbits is 4 kilograms. It is during this period that some animals can be mated, while others can be sent for slaughter. At 8 months, the weight of a rabbit reaches 5-7 kilograms, and this is the maximum. It is recommended to slaughter animals during this period. You can keep rabbits for 1-2 years. True, they will not gain more than 5-7 kilograms anyway.

To get skins

Rabbits are kept not only for meat, but also to get skins of a high category. In this case, it is necessary to pay attention to the timing of molting animals. All rabbits molt twice a year: in spring and autumn. In winter, that is, from November to March, the fur is of the best quality. It is during this period that the animals are slaughtered to obtain the skin of the first category.

In summer, animals do not shed. True, during this period their fur is not as thick as in winter. In addition, in the summer they try not to kill rabbits, because there is plenty of green grass on the street - the main food for these animals. You can generally ignore the periods of molting and send the animals to slaughter at any time. True, in this case, the skins will be of poor quality.

There are two more periods of molting, depending not on the time of year, but on the age of the animals. Rabbits molt at 4 months and at 6 months of age. Sometimes molting occurs in adult rabbits after a month of feeding rabbits.Sometimes animals shed due to illness or poor nutrition.

Important! Each rabbit must be checked for the condition of the skin before slaughter. Wool falls out in different parts of the body, starting with the abdomen. During the molting period, the skin is dark, and after it is completed, it is white (but only in rabbits of colored breeds).

Preparation of animals

2-3 weeks before slaughter, the selected animal is transplanted into a separate cage. The animal is checked for diseases, its weight is determined, and the condition of the skin is examined. The cage is slightly darkened, because the appetite of rabbits improves in the evening.

Before slaughter, animals are given less grass and hay, but more grain and vegetables. True, the amount of grain mixture (crushed wheat, oats, barley, corn) should not exceed 120 grams per day. Animals get better quickly on boiled potatoes mixed with grated carrots or beets.Rabbits gain weight well if they are fed wet mash, that is, porridge or steamed grain mixtures. Lightly s alted water stimulates appetite well. Dill or parsley can be added to animal feed. Smelling herbs also stimulate the appetite.

Important! The day before slaughter, the rabbits stop being fed, and 3 hours before death, they stop drinking. Cells are thoroughly cleaned of food residue, dirt and feces.

Rabbit slaughter methods

Many rabbit breeders prefer to take their animal to the slaughterhouse, where it will be slaughtered by specialists. You can invite a person who knows the methods of slaughtering rabbits to your house. If none of these methods can be used, the animals are slaughtered themselves.

Bloodless

This is the most common slaughter method. The animal is pulled out of the cage, hung upside down by the hind legs. When the animal calms down, it is beaten with all its might with a stick wrapped in cloth on the back of the head behind the ears.A strong blow strikes the medulla oblongata, resulting in paralysis of breathing, and the rabbit instantly dies.

Important! After slaughter, the carcass must be bled immediately. Animals hung by their hind legs are cut at the throat (cervical artery) to drain the blood and turn the meat pinkish in color.

French

You can kill an animal using the French method. With this method, the animal is placed on the table, one hand is taken by the ears, the other by the legs. A person who kills a rabbit with the French method must have very strong hands. A calmed animal needs to be sharply pulled by the ears and legs in different directions. The rabbit dies instantly from a broken neck and a torn spinal cord. After slaughter, the carcass is immediately bled.

Top fracture

You can kill an animal by breaking its crown. With this method, the animal is hung upside down by its hind legs. Then a strong blow is applied to the forehead with a stick. After slaughter, the carcass is bled.

Exposure to electric shock

If you wish, you can learn how to kill animals with electric current. True, this method is mainly used in slaughterhouses. At home, you can take an electric cord with bare wires at one end and a plug (plug) at the other. The cable must be split into two parts. The iron core of one wire must be inserted into the anus or hind thigh of the rabbit. Another wire is put into the beast's mouth. The plug is plugged into the outlet for 1-3 seconds.

Important! In order to kill a rabbit, the current must be 5 amps, and in a home outlet it is 16 amps. At the time of connecting the electricity, it is forbidden to touch the animal. Instead of an electric cord, you can use a stun gun.

Air embolism

You can kill a rabbit with an ordinary disposable syringe.The animal is pierced with a vein in the ear, which leads to the heart muscle. Air is introduced into the blood vessel. It is pointless to describe this method in detail, since it is used extremely rarely. The fact is that the animal does not die immediately, but after a few minutes, that is, when the air reaches the heart.

Neck rolling

At home, you can simply twist the rabbit's neck; this method of slaughter is not suitable for beginner rabbit breeders. This method requires determination and skill. The head of the animal is clasped with a hand and a sharp turn of 180 degrees is made. With this method, the cervical vertebrae break, and the rabbit dies instantly.

Firing pin

Quickly kill a rabbit with a special device that looks like an iron syringe. Inside the firing pin there is a spring and a metal tip. The device is placed on the head of the rabbit at the intersection of two imaginary lines, each of which connects the opposite eye and ear of the animal.After pressing the button, an iron pin flies out of the device, which instantly and painlessly kills the animal. After slaughter, the animal is hung up by its hind legs and bled.

Knife

You can stab a rabbit with a sharp knife. The blow must be applied to the region of the heart. The blood method of slaughtering animals is traditionally used by Muslim peoples. A knife is used to cut the throat of a still-living rabbit, or rather cut the cervical artery.

Important! In many European countries, the blood method of slaughtering animals is prohibited. We have a criminal liability for cruel treatment in case of inhumane killing of animals.

How to properly skin (flay)?

After slaughter, the animals are hung upside down by their hind legs on a strut and their throats are cut. For 10 minutes, they wait for the blood to completely drain from the carcass. Then the animal is removed and the bladder is emptied. After that, they start skinning.

The carcass is again hung up by the hind legs on a spacer. Skinning starts from the hind limbs according to the general scheme for all. First, the skin is cut around the hocks (at the base of the paws). Then the skin is cut from one paw to another (along the inside of the thighs, crossing the anus).

After that, the skin with fur is pulled off the body over the head in the same way as a sweater is removed. Interfering fat and tendons are cut with a knife. Notches are made on the head and near the front paws. The removed skin is stretched on a forked rule with the fur inside. It is cleaned with a knife from fat, sprinkled with s alt, dried in a well-ventilated area.

How to butcher a carcass?

After skinning, the carcass hanging on the spacer must be gutted. An incision is made on the peritoneum along the white line to the sternum. All internal organs are removed from the abdominal cavity, but in such a way as not to damage the gallbladder and bladder.The insides are neatly folded into a bowl. The rabbit's head and legs are cut off.

After gutting, the carcass is removed from the spacer and washed. You need to cut the rabbit into portioned pieces on a horizontal surface. For cutting, special knives are used (sirloin, cutting and boning). The carcass is cut off the fillet from the abdomen and back, all the legs are separated, the spine is broken into several parts.

After cutting, the meat is washed, allowed to dry and stored in the refrigerator. You can start cooking right away. The meat is stewed, boiled, fried with vegetables and spices. The carcass of a rabbit is rarely baked whole, because it does not have a skin. In addition to meat, the liver, kidneys and heart of the animal are used for culinary purposes.

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