Potentially food-related: Has anyone ever "harvested" feral rabbit?

J

joe

Well-known member
Our newest community garden is on private horse property along the infamous L.A. River. The river is a huge concrete ditch but there are patches of the original wetlands that remain. People tend to dump unwanted animals there.

We will open the new garden near one such area in March. We've already had one meeting where we planted one bed, sort of like a model home in a new development. I put in cute little cabbage and lettuce plants, and within a few days, they were nibbled to a nub. It seems someone dumped some rabbits nearby. The owners of the property have seen three.

I rented a humane cage and set it today--we may catch one of them soon. If I do, my options are:

1) Release it in some other area along the river, where it will become someone else's problem.

2) Release it a little further upriver, where it will become a coyote's dinner

3) Take it to the local carniceria to be butchered. I love Lapin in Mustard Sauce. Traca's thread about scary food has emboldened me.

The third option is the only truly legal one. Would it be worth it? Are pet rabbits the same animals they grow for food, and do they have to be killed as juveniles to be edible? Am I a terrible person for even wondering?

I know a lot of you grew up on farms or in rural areas; please advise this city boy.

 
Feral or not, a rabbit is a rabbit

We use to eat the wild ones when I was a kid and mainly adult ones. Feral might be slightly tougher as they are actually out running around where as ones raised for foods are caged and get very little exercise. The diets vary a little but won't be that noticable typically. They will at least make a good braised dish.

The babies we found after bush hogging the field and killing the mom were given to us kids and we put them in my grandmother's 'unfinished' base cabinet that was in her pantry (actually a whole room with freezer, washer/dryer which is where she rolled out dumplings and crusts) and such. Unfortunately, there was a hole in the back of the base cabinet and they got loose in the house and bye bye went our pets when they were finally found. So we didn't eat babies - we left those to the wild - the hounds or the coyotes.

Truth is, there are two very sustainable sources of meat protein - rabbit and guinea pigs (or cuy). They require a small footprint, reproduce quickly, reach marketable size quickly, and are lean. The biggest problem is to get people, mainly those of us in the US, to change our view of them as cute little pets.

 
Be careful it doesn't have worms. My friends parents shoot several on their

property and when I asked if they ate them, they said they couldn't because they were ridden with worms. Even the eagles wouldn't eat them, hence the massive population.

I'm not sure how you check for something like that. Grab one and see, I suppose.

 
Do you have a shelter that akes care of abandoned animals in your area?

If so, that would be my choice. As Traca pointed out, they can have worms.

 
Some info.

Joe, first, if they're established, YOU will never get rid of them. You have options, however:

Fence in your garden and optimally enclose a cat inside.

There are things they don't like: blood, tobacco, ivory soap, mothballs. spread this around and on your plants will help, particularly when you first plant and they are the most vulnerable.

Techniques:

Rabbit Puke Shake: Blend a pack of chewing tobacco, dried blood, and ivory soap shavings in a blender. Let it sit for a couple days. Strain it and put it in a sprayer. Spray your plants with this.

Shave bars of ivory soap with a vegetable peeler around plants.

Scatter mothballs or flakes around plants.

Sprinkle dried blood, especially around your perimeter. You can also sprinkle chewing tobacco around, but you'll get more bang for you buck making a solution and spraying everything to make the little b

s puke if they eat it.

Good luck.

Farmer MacGregor was a righteous and justly agrieved man.

 
Thanks, all! I have now lost my appetite for Lapin a la Moutard. The idea of wormy meat did it.

I checked with my animal shelter and they said if it is a pet rabbit they will take it. If it is a wild rabbit, no. (I'm pretty sure it's an abandoned pet.)

Thanks for all the pest control information for future reference! I've printed out the recipe for "Bunny Puke Shake."

 
I have the most fabulous rabbit recipe with apple brandy, sauteed mustard greens,

mustard seed cream sauce and little apple turnovers if you are interested.

 
Oh yes! I can still get rabbits frozen--they're expensive but this recipe sounds worth it.

 
Does your area/county have a vector control dept? Call them...

Because I found out mine does and I'm totally in the burbs up here in Sillycon Valley.

A raccoon announced/showed itself/growled at me and I ran into the house and he/she ran under it and up into my attic just last night.

Called my county "vector control" dept this am and they are going to send someone out to trap it/deal with it.

 
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