Rabbit Awareness Week
It’s Rabbit Awareness Week, and you missed it – didn’t you?
They want to remind you that by law (Animal Welfare Act 2006, natch) you must meet the basic needs of your rabbit in 5 areas:
- Environment
- Behaviour
- Diet
- Company
- Health
In one sense this is the right focus. Many pet rabbits live in conditions far worse, and for periods far longer, than rabbits on rabbit farms (which are regulated by DEFRA). The RSPCA has even run “pets not prisoners” campaigns against cruelty to pet rabbits:
It says “rarely a day goes by” without the RSPCA receiving a call about rabbits living in “appalling conditions”, making them one of the most neglected and forgotten pets in the region.
Cases confronted by the RSPCA last yearincluded a seriously ill rabbit that was left to die instead of being taken to the vet’s, a rabbit that was left to slowly starve to death when its owner moved home, and ten rabbits abandoned by a roadside in a cardboard box.
Today the RSPCA has launched a campaign to highlight the plight of rabbits across the north and to show that many are instead kept as prisoners, not pets.
However, inevitably the Rabbit Awareness Week bods have missed out the most important reason for caring for all rabbits: that they make for excellent eating.
Rabbit is one of the healthiest meats, especially if wild, and also one of the least expensive.
The slogan for the week is excellent:
Because Rabbits get a Raw Deal
Quite right; cooked is a far better option.
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May 23, 2011 at 12:22 -
The laboratory rabbit was sat in his cage one morning, quitly digesting his breakfast, when he heard a scrabbling on the door-latch. A wild rabbit was opening the cage.
“Come on,” said the wild rabbit, “and enjoy some freedom. It’s great!”
The lab. rabbit hopped at the chance. The two rabbits scuttled across the lab, out through a hole under one of the benches, over the car-park and under the hedge. They were a huge field full of carrots, with wild rabbits dotted here and there.
“Get stuck into the carrots!” advised the wild rabbit, “Then introduce yourself to some of the ladies. They’re very friendly!” he added with a wink. “I’ll see you later.”
Somewhat later, the wild rabbit found the lab rabbit huddled in a corner of the field, sulking. “What’s up? All the carrots you could want, and lovely young ladies to entertain you? Why the sulks?”
“Hurrumph, that’s all very well,” snapped the lab. rabbit, grumpily, “but I haven’t had a smoke for six hours.”
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May 23, 2011 at 12:48
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May 23, 2011 at 12:47 -
I just visited their website, someone needs to have a word with their web admin. I couldn’t find anywhere to send a few recipes other than the “donate” button – and that only accepts credit cards or PayPal.
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May 23, 2011 at 13:22 -
Road kill, yes, road kill is the best and the cheapest form of rabbit.
They are a bit like pheasants, they freeze in the headlights when you put your foot down fast. If you have 4×4 you can chase them all over the grass verge as well. If you are lucky you can clobber a whole batch in one go. My freezer keeps going on road kill, and my wife loves it. Yum rabbit pie!
Make sure you have a few carrier bags in the car at all times, and a sharp knife. It is far better to quickly gut it at the road side, than take it home and have all the mess in the kitchen or by the back door. Not only that throwing the guts in the hedgerow is good recycling, at least the foxes and crows think so. Chucking the guts over the neighbour’s hedge usually causes more trouble than its worth, even if they do have a dog.
There are some good youtube videos on how to gut a rabbit, and pheasants so all you have to do is bite the bullet and get on with it. Make the decision and stop being a coward. You know the rabbits appreciate the attention.
If you don’t like running them down then just look out for ones already prepared but not too flattened, as they are a little more difficult to gut, being as they are a bit intermingled (intermangled?) inside.
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May 23, 2011 at 13:49 -
You asked about the form and culture of the blog previously. You’ll find that some of us try and uphold the moral standard of the comments.
The rabbit’s great life is for me
Just screw every doe you can see
No need for Viagra
‘Ejac like Niagara
Then take home some carrots for tea -
May 23, 2011 at 14:09 -
Just trying to get a new browser working properly, sorry, rabbits rhyme to follow if it works.
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May 23, 2011 at 14:13 -
I’ve only eaten roadkill once (rabbit, as it happens, as an impoverished student) and it was delicious. But later on I was told that eating an animal/bird that has been hit by a car is a very bad idea. The impact explodes the intestines and the contents spread out and contaminate much of the edible bits. I’d love to know if this is true or just an old wives’ tale. Anyone?
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May 23, 2011 at 15:40 -
Use discretion on harvesting. If it’s had a whack on the head, and the rest is intact, it’ll be OK. If it’s as flat as a pizza, leave it for the magpies.
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May 23, 2011 at 15:54 -
As Engineer says, use common sense. When you gut it, you’ll see if its mangled. Clean it out and run it under the cold tap. if its been a bit splattered, don’t hang it, cook straight away.
The best way to skin them, is to stick a finger under the fur in the middle, follow round with a knife or scissors so the fur is cut in half. Take a hold of each side of the cut fur and pull back away from the middle.
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May 23, 2011 at 14:17 -
Right, battlefield-mode, this spamtrap is going to die.
The rabbit’s great life is for me
Just screw every doe you can see
No need for VeeARGRA
‘Ejac like NeeARGRA
Then take home some carrots for tea-
May 23, 2011 at 14:25 -
If you only knew how much Viagra I was offered every day……..!
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May 23, 2011 at 14:44 -
Would you like me to stop sending you it?
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May 23, 2011 at 15:53 -
As the younger internet denizens would say:
Pwned!
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May 23, 2011 at 16:43 -
I once had to force my kids out of the car to kill an injured wild rabbit, while I cried.
And then we took it home and ate it. Well, it was dead.
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May 23, 2011 at 21:54 -
I tried that with a pedestrian once, but we didn’t have enough room in the freezer.
It would have meant taking some of the road kill venison out and I wasn’t about to lose that for a jaywalker!
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May 23, 2011 at 18:19 -
Somebody has been poisoning all the Rabbits in the Highlands of Scotland with a new biological weapon. It has nearly wiped out the entire population from Inverness to just outside Aberdeen. Less than a decade ago the night was filled with Rabbits being caught in my spot light, now I can go days and never see one.
I often go for a walk in the great private hunting estates, owned by our dear friends in London City, late at night with my spotlight and few rather swift dogs for company.There are no longer rabbits due to a new disease Rabbit Viral Haemorrhagic Disease (RVHD) which seems to have amazingly spread through all these hunting estates with alarming speed. Almost as if someone has been spreading it on purpose as they do with the bird of prey poison. Surely not the Estate Owners I hear you gasp.
Due to this I am left with no option but to hunt Deer and Hares.
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May 23, 2011 at 19:52 -
May 23, 2011 at 20:48 -
Bloodthirsty lot.
What have I let myself in for?
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May 24, 2011 at 00:59 -
I can never remember … is it Hares Krishna or Hare Krishnas ? (Although that may not be the “”Hares” to which 2Mac refers @ 18:19 …)
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May 24, 2011 at 10:54 -
So what do I do with ‘Facundo’, the de-domesticated rabbit that escaped from a house nearby and lives under my house?
My kids won’t let me buy a shot-gun. He hasn’t done any damage, is very territorial about his ‘dumps’ (I know where they are ‘cos the grass grows fast and green).
He takes the dog for a walk round the garden at 500mph. The bloody thing will never catch him. I am dying for him to bring the rabbit in in his jaws but what the heck, he’s only a miniature poodle.
Mebbe I’ll just leave him be.
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