How to kill (slaughter) a rabbit at home - basic methods and step-by-step instructions

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04.07.2018

How to slaughter a rabbit at home? The question is far from idle, especially for beginners. The quality of fur and meat largely depends on how the procedure is carried out. To obtain a product of the highest standard, slaughter must be carried out correctly.

Choosing a rabbit for slaughter

Which animal to slaughter depends on the purpose for which they were raised. For meat breeds, the most important thing is the gained mass, so you can stab as soon as the animal grows enough.

For fur breeds, the condition of the fur is more important: the animal must go through two age-related molts. There is no point in stabbing a rabbit if it is shedding. You can determine shedding by examining the fur on the thigh: if the animal’s skin is speckled and the fur comes out in clumps when pinched, the rodent is shedding.

It is also important to take into account the health of the animal. Before slaughtering a rodent for meat, you should make sure that it is not sick with anything, and that at least a month has passed since the last vaccination.

Age of the rabbit before slaughter

A rabbit of meat breeds usually must live at least 4 months to gain 3-4 kilograms of meat. The skin-bearing ones live much longer: they need at least 6 months to complete two molts. Seasonal molting occurs in March - April and September - October, which means that it will not be possible to kill the animal at this time. In addition, you need to take into account that the best quality of fur will be in animals born in winter and slaughtered in December - January.

Skinning

The operations carried out with the skin after slaughter are shown
. The figure shows the following:

the dotted lines indicate the methods of making cuts on the carcass and the places where the legs are cut off;
the skin is carefully pulled together with a stocking;
It is usually put on, where it is degreased and freed from tendons.

After this, the skins are prepared for preservation. They are salted, then dried and stored in a cool, dark place away from heating systems.

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Preparation for slaughter

Killing a rabbit is a quick job; an experienced farm breeder can do it in five minutes. But in order to properly slaughter a rabbit at home, you need to carefully prepare.

First, you need to prepare the animal. Before slaughter, the rabbit is placed in a separate cage for a day, washed and stopped feeding. Thanks to the starvation diet, the animal's body gets rid of feces, which can spoil the meat. It is a good idea to conduct a veterinary examination: the fur and meat of a sick rodent can infect people.

Secondly, you need to prepare your tools. You will need:

Spacer. Any block with a hook for hanging in the middle and two more hooks for clinging the carcass along the edges will do. The spacer is suspended at the slaughter site, and later the carcass clings to it by the hind legs.
The murder weapon depends on the slaughter method used.
Sharp knives. It is advisable to have a large knife for cutting the body and a small one for skinning.
The tension frame is useful for skinning.
Dishes for internal organs.
Container with water.
An apron is useful for protecting clothes from blood, gloves are useful for protecting hands and meat.

We need to prepare the place. Cover nearby surfaces with film or paper to avoid blood stains. In addition, slaughtering animals in the presence of sensitive people is unacceptable.

What tools should you use?

Slaughter stick. Usually they use a part of an old shovel cutting 40-60 centimeters long. It is not recommended to use a metal rod. The prepared stick is often wrapped in either rubber or fabric in several layers. Experienced slaughterers do without tools at all, using the edge of their own palm when slaughtering.

Spacer. It is a stick 30 centimeters long with pointed edges. A circular groove is made strictly in the middle. The spacer is suspended with a strong rope at eye level. The carcass is attached to it for skinning.

Knives. Usually two knives are needed; one is for skinning, the second is for cutting the resulting carcass.

You also need to prepare in advance separate containers in which the meat itself, entrails, kidneys separately and liver separately will be placed. Usually, ordinary enamel bowls of sufficient width are used. If the skin, after removal, is planned to be sold in the future, then a frame is needed to stretch it.

For impressionable beginners, ammonia is a must.

It is also necessary to prepare a container with water and a towel in advance so that you can wash your hands immediately after finishing the process.

Quick and painless slaughter

There are several ways to humanely slaughter a rabbit. Here are the most common ones:

Jamming. The rodent is held vertically by the hind legs with the left hand. The right hand strikes the back of the head, right behind the ears. In this case, the carotid artery is torn, and the animal quickly dies. The blow is usually delivered with a wooden stick wrapped in cloth, or alternatively with the edge of the palm. If everything is done correctly, the animal will bleed from its nose and ears.
French method. The animal is laid horizontally, grasped by the ears with one hand and the legs with the other. When the rabbit relaxes, you need to strongly jerk your arms to the sides, tearing the arteries. It is important that the jerk is strong enough, otherwise you will not be able to kill the rabbit the first time and painlessly.
Rolling of the neck. The rabbit grabs the lower body with his right hand. With your left hand, grab the back of the animal’s neck so that your fingers touch the chin. The animal's neck is broken by quickly turning the hand about three-quarters of a turn.
Electrical method. Produced using a special device. A current of more than 5 amperes passes through the animal's body, usually from the gluteal muscle to the back of the head.
Using a shooting pin. This is how rabbits are killed in most European countries. The method allows you to quickly kill an animal, but requires a special pin-needle. This instrument shoots a needle into the animal's body with great force, making death quick and painless if the blow hits the right point. The instrument must be placed at the intersection of two lines: from the left eye to the right ear and from the right to the left.

Necessary preparatory work

First of all, you need to prepare the main tool - a knife. It must be well sharpened and properly “finished” on the block, since a sharp blade is necessary for cutting the fluff on the rabbit’s neck. Finishing a knife involves removing burrs after sharpening it. It is needed so that in the process of cutting the carcass the knife does not become dull, since if this is not done, the burrs on the knife blade will bend, thereby dulling the tool. For these purposes, it is better to choose a hunting knife with a hardened blade, but if you don’t have one, you can use an ordinary kitchen knife, as long as it fits comfortably in the palm of your hand.

After sharpening the knife, preparation of basic tools and materials follows. These include:

metal scissors or pruning shears;
a thick stick half a meter long;
stone for sharpening knives;
basins with cold water.

Other slaughter methods

Until recently, few people cared about how to slaughter and butcher a rabbit humanely. In many cases people are still not interested in this. So, you can kill a rabbit by cutting a large cervical artery, or simply hack it to death. This is the fastest method. In addition, it is often used for religious reasons. You can also kill a rabbit by injecting a large amount of air into an ear vein. The syringe is emptied quickly, and a minute later the animal dies from embolism.

Video

Training videos for dummies on slaughtering and skinning rabbits are presented below:

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Natural toxins are found in many plants; Those grown in gardens and vegetable gardens are no exception. Thus, the seeds of apples, apricots, and peaches contain hydrocyanic acid, and the tops and peels of unripe nightshades (potatoes, eggplants, tomatoes) contain solanine. But do not be afraid: their number is too small.

Meat rabbit cutting

Before processing the carcass, it is necessary to drain the blood. To do this, the rabbit is suspended on a strut by its hind legs, punching them between the tendon and the bone. Incisions are made to drain the blood. You can cut through the animal's nose, pierce an artery in the neck through the mouth, or cut out the eyes. After this, the rodent must hang for about five minutes so that all the blood has time to drain. Then you can start cutting.

First of all, the skin is removed. Using a sharp knife, the skin on the hind legs, above the knee, is ripped open. From these circular incisions, the next one is made, from one hind paw to the other, along the inside of the paws and through the groin area. The front legs below the knee joint, ears and tail are cut off. After this, the skin is easily pulled from the hind paws to the front paws using a sharp knife.

You can skin it differently. In accordance with the English method, first a longitudinal incision is made from the perineum to the throat. After this, the skin is gradually pulled back until the back is freed. The fur is then pulled off the hind legs and the hind legs are cut off. The back, front paws and finally the head are freed.

Skinning is followed by gutting. First of all, the junction of the pelvic bones is cut, the hind legs are turned out over the hip joints so that the intestines are separated from the body. Then you need to make an incision along the peritoneum along the white line. Be careful, if you touch the internal organs, their contents will spoil the taste of the meat. Through an incision, the intestines and reproductive organs are removed from the carcass, then the heart, liver and stomach. After cutting off the head and washing the carcass, the meat can be considered suitable for storage and transportation. For convenience, the front legs can be inserted into the slots between the third and fourth ribs, the hind legs can be fastened together near the hock joint.

Subsequently, the carcass is divided into portioned pieces. In this case, the limbs are cut off from the body; if they are large enough, they are cut at the joint. The breastbone is cut off with butcher scissors and divided lengthwise between the ribs. The lower half of the ridge is divided into several pieces depending on size, the upper half is flattened and cut into four parts. In total, the carcass produces four legs (possibly divided into thighs and drumsticks), two pieces each of fillet, back and ribs, and more than three pieces of backbone.

How to cut a carcass?

They begin to cut the carcass immediately after skinning, while it is still warm. Butchering a rabbit goes like this:

First, a vertical incision is made in the peritoneum. Fingers are inserted into it and the urinary and gall bladders are carefully removed. It is important not to damage them so as not to spoil the meat.
Now you can remove other organs - intestines, liver, lungs. The kidneys are left inside the carcass.
The head is cut off at the last cervical vertebra.
To give the carcass a presentable appearance, it is molded. To do this, the forelimbs are inserted into incisions in the area of the 3rd and 4th ribs on both sides.
The hindquarters should be aligned and fastened together.

Every farmer should know how to properly slaughter a rabbit, remove its skin and process it. Without such experience, it is better to ask a knowledgeable person to show how this is done. It will take some time to master this science. Having decided to breed fur-bearing animals, you will have to learn how to kill them in cold blood.

Adviсe

If you are organizing the slaughter of rabbits at home for the first time, prepare not only the tools, but also ammonia. For the first time, an unfamiliar person may feel dizzy with excitement.
The skin must be removed immediately after bleeding. It comes off a warm carcass much easier.
When skinning near the genitals, you should be careful. It is better to make only small “stitches” with a knife so as not to accidentally touch the bladder.
Rabbits have thin bones that crumble finely when pressed. The carcass must be handled carefully, otherwise it will be difficult to remove small bone fragments from the meat.
It is important to kill the rabbit correctly, humanely and the first time. If the animal died hard, its meat will be tougher.
When properly processed, rabbit meat should be red-pink, without any foreign odors. An excessively saturated color indicates stagnant blood, an unpleasant odor indicates damage to internal organs during cutting.

Further actions.

After the animal is completely bled, they immediately begin skinning and removing the internal organs or gutting. It needs to be done as quickly as possible, since a delay in most cases, and especially in summer, can lead to the contamination of meat with microorganisms located in the intestines. Read and see details about how to properly and quickly remove the skin from a rabbit with a tube or stocking here.

And in conclusion, I suggest watching another video with a selection of different methods of slaughtering rabbits. Once again, I apologize if this material caused negative emotions in you.

Process Features

The process of slaughtering an animal such as a rabbit is quite unpleasant. Beginning farmers make a big mistake by becoming attached to animals. Therefore, it is most difficult for beginners to accept the fact of murder, and even more so to commit it with their own hands. To alleviate the rabbit’s fate and one’s own peace of mind, the slaughter process must be carried out as quickly as possible in order to avoid causing suffering to the animal. Some experienced farmers advise asking the animal for forgiveness in order to avoid pangs of conscience.

Rabbits are slaughtered after examination by a veterinarian. Sick animals are not allowed to be slaughtered.