How to cut a rabbit at home, schemes and methods for beginners
Novice breeders need to know how to slaughter and butcher a rabbit on their own. After all, these animals are bred for the sake of meat and for the skin. Rabbits are slaughtered in a relatively humane way - they beat the animals with all their might on the head with a stick. There are a number of other slaughtering methods, but they are rarely used on home farms. Sooner or later, each breeder will have to kill these animals on his 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 coat. It is not recommended to slaughter animals weighing less than 2 kilograms. It is undesirable to send animals for slaughter at the time of molting.
For meat
If you urgently need to slaughter a rabbit for meat, it is desirable that its mass exceed 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 hammer. Indeed, at 2-3 months they eat almost everything, grow well on grass or hay, and quickly gain weight. It makes no sense to send animals to slaughter if they have not gained the required mass.
Already at 4 months, the rabbit weighs about 3 kilograms. If desired, such an animal can be slaughtered for meat. At 6 months of age, rabbits weigh 4 kilograms. It is during this period that some animals can be mated, others can be sent to slaughter. At 8 months, the weight of the 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 the skin
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 the molting of 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 was 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 slaughter rabbits, because there is plenty of green grass on the street - the main food for these animals. You can generally ignore the molting periods and send the animals to slaughter at any time. True, in this case, the skins will be of poor quality.
There are two more moulting periods, depending not on the season, but on the age of the animals. Rabbits molt at 4 months and 6 months of age.Sometimes molt occurs in adult rabbits after a month of feeding rabbits. Sometimes animals shed due to illness or poor nutrition.
Preparation of animals
2-3 weeks before the slaughter of the selected animal, they are 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 rabbits' appetite improves precisely in the evening.
Before slaughter, the 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 recover quickly on boiled potatoes mixed with grated carrots or beets. Rabbits gain weight well if they are fed with wet mash, that is, porridge or steamed cereal mixtures. Lightly salted water stimulates the appetite. You can mix dill or parsley in animal feed. Smelling herbs also stimulate appetite.
Important! The day before the slaughter of the rabbits, they stop feeding, and 3 hours before death, they stop drinking. Cells are thoroughly cleaned of food residues, dirt and feces.
Rabbit slaughter methods
Many breeders prefer to take their animal to the slaughterhouse, where specialists will slaughter it. You can invite a person to your house who knows the methods of slaughtering rabbits. If none of these methods can be used, the animals are slaughtered on their own.
Bloodless
This is the most common slaughter method. The animal is taken out of the cage, hung upside down by its hind legs. When the animal calms down, they beat it with all their might with a stick wrapped in cloth on the back of the head behind the ears. A strong blow affects the medulla oblongata, as a result of which breathing is paralyzed, and the rabbit instantly dies.
Important! After slaughter, the carcass must be drained immediately. The throat (cervical artery) of the animal suspended by its hind legs is cut so that the blood flows out, and the meat becomes pinkish in color.
French
You can kill an animal using the French method. With this method, the animal is placed on the table, with one hand held by the ears, with the other by the legs. A person who kills a rabbit using the French method must have very strong hands. The calmed animal needs to be pulled sharply by the ears and legs in different directions. The rabbit instantly dies from a broken neck and a ruptured spinal cord. After slaughter, the carcass is immediately exsanguinated.
Crown fracture
You can kill the animal by breaking the crown of its head. In this method, the animal is hung upside down by its hind legs. Then they hit the forehead with a stick. After slaughter, the carcass is exsanguinated.
Electric shock
If you wish, you can learn to kill animals with an electric current. However, this method is mainly used in slaughterhouses. At home, you can take an electrical cord with bare wires at one end and a plug on the other. The cable must be disconnected in two. The iron core of one wire must be inserted into the anus or hind thigh of the rabbit. Another post is put into the mouth of the beast. The plug is plugged into an outlet for 1-3 seconds.
Important! In order to kill a rabbit, the current must be 5 amperes, and in a home outlet, it is equal to 16 amperes. At the moment 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 punctured by a vein in the ear, which leads to the heart muscle.Air is introduced into the blood vessel. It makes no sense 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.
Collapsing the neck
At home, you can simply roll the rabbit's neck; this method of slaughter is not suitable for novice rabbit breeders. This method requires determination and skill. The head of the animal is wrapped around with a hand and a sharp 180 degree turn is made. With this method, the cervical vertebrae break, and the rabbit instantly dies.
Firing pin
You can quickly kill a rabbit using a special device, similar to an iron syringe. There is a spring and a metal tip inside the firing pin. The device is attached to the rabbit's head 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 suspended by its hind legs and exsanguinated.
With a knife
You can stab a rabbit with a sharp knife. The blow must be delivered to the heart area. The blood method of slaughtering animals is traditionally used by Muslim peoples. They cut the throat of a rabbit still alive with a knife, or rather cut the cervical artery.
Important! In many European countries, the blood method of slaughtering animals is prohibited. We have criminal liability for cruel treatment in the event of inhumane killing of animals.
How to properly skin (skinning)?
After slaughter, the animals are suspended upside down by their hind legs on a spacer and the pharynx is cut. They wait for 10 minutes for the blood to completely drain from the carcass. Then the animal is removed and the bladder is emptied. After that, they start flaying.
The carcass is again suspended by the hind legs on the spacer. They begin to remove the skin from the hind limbs according to the general scheme for all. First, the skin is cut around the hock joints (at the base of the paws). Then the skin is cut from one foot to the other (along the inner thighs, crossing the anus).
After that, the skin with fur is pulled from the body over the head in the same way as the 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 pulled on a forked rule with the fur inside. It is cleaned with a knife from fat, sprinkled with salt, dried in a well-ventilated area.
How to cut 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 so as not to damage the gall and bladder. The insides are carefully folded into a basin. The rabbit's head and legs are cut off.
After evisceration, the carcass is removed from the spacer and washed. Cut the rabbit into portions on a horizontal surface. For cutting, use special knives (fillet, butcher and boning). The fillet of the carcass is cut off from the belly 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. A rabbit carcass is rarely baked whole, because it has no skin. In addition to meat, the liver, kidneys and heart of the animal are used for culinary purposes.
