Who here still eats rabbit?

Do you still eat the rabbits/hares that you shoot?

  • Never have eaten one. Never would either.

    Votes: 5 3.2%

  • I have in the past. No real interest in eating them anymore.

    Votes: 25 15.9%

  • I've never eaten rabbits, but if I could hunt them regularly, I'd eat what I shot.

    Votes: 28 17.8%

  • I still hunt and cook them whenever possible.

    Votes: 99 63.1%
  • Total voters
    157
  • Poll closed .
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Looks like Colorado has some tougher regs than Arizona...

http://wildlife.state.co.us/SiteCollectionDocuments/DOW/RulesRegs/Regulations/Ch03.pdf

#306 - Special Conditions
A. Exemption for wildlife in conflict with people
In addition to the authority granted in subsection 33-6-107(9) C.R.S. to take wildlife causing damage; any person, members of their family, or their agents may, without securing licenses to do so, take:
1. Tree squirrels and cottontail rabbits on property owned or administered by them whenever such wildlife is causing damage on such property.
2. Marmots, opossums and porcupines which are causing damage to such person's personal property.
Methods of take used must be in accordance with federal, state, and local law.
#307 - Cottontail Rabbit, Snowshoe Hare, White-tailed & Black-tailed jackrabbit
A. Season Dates and Units
1. Statewide: October 1 - end of February.
2. Extended Falconry Season - Statewide: September 1 - March 31
B. Daily Bag and Possession Limits
1. Daily Bag Limit - Ten (10) cottontail rabbits, ten (10) snowshoe hares, ten (10) jackrabbits.
2. Possession Limit: Twenty (20) cottontail rabbits, twenty (20) snowshoe hares, and twenty (20) jackrabbits.
Click to expand...
So it looks like I can neither shoot them for property damage now, nor for food since the season doesn't start until September 1st and they are not listed as an animal that can be killed for depredation. That blows.
 
That depends on what it says in subsection 33-6-107(9) C.R.S.

ETA: actually, it looks like 306 says you're OK if they are causing damage.
 
I have to buy rabbit around here, if I had a place to hunt them, I'd be hunting/cleaning/eating/freezing rabbit, instead of buying one for Easter dinner and maybe one or two other times per year.
 
That depends on what it says in subsection 33-6-107(9) C.R.S.
Click to expand...
http://www.state.co.us/gov_dir/leg_dir/olls/sl2003a/sl_144.htm

SECTION 9. 33-6-107 (6) and (9), Colorado Revised Statutes, are amended to read:

33-6-107. Licensing violations - penalties. (6) [strike]Any[/strike] A person sixteen years of age or over who fishes for or takes fish, amphibians, mollusks, or crustaceans in this state shall have a proper and valid fishing license on his or her person. Persons under sixteen years of age are not required to have a fishing license [strike]but[/strike] AND shall be entitled to [strike]only one-half[/strike] the FULL bag or possession limit set by the commission. [strike]any[/strike] A person who violates this subsection (6) is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine of fifty dollars and an assessment of ten license suspension points.

(9) For the purposes of this section, any person, any member of such person's family, or any employee of the person may hunt, trap, or take black-billed magpies, common crows, starlings, English or house sparrows, common pigeons, coyotes, bobcats, red foxes, raccoons, jackrabbits, badgers, marmots, prairie dogs, pocket gophers, Richardson's ground squirrels, rock squirrels, thirteen-lined ground squirrels, porcupines, crayfish, tiger salamanders, muskrats, beavers, exotic wildlife, and common snapping turtles on lands owned or leased by the person without securing licenses to do so, but only when such wildlife is causing damage to crops, real or personal property, or livestock. Any person may kill skunks or rattlesnakes when necessary to protect life or property. The pelts or hides of any mammals taken under this subsection (9) may be transferred, possessed, traded, bartered, or sold by any a person who holds an appropriate small game [strike]or furbearer[/strike] license.
Click to expand...

Good to go. :cool:
 
I always have at least 8 rabbits in the shed, and usually a lot more. I raise Flemish Giants, California Cross, or New Zealands... I like the NZ's the best. Here in the summer raising rabbits is a real pain in the butt! I have a deep freeze full of frozen two liter bottles of water and rotate the bottles in and out of the rabbit hutches every day. When it gets 110+ the rabbits sit on the ice to cool themselves.

I eat rabbit meat at least three times a week and my dogs diet probably consists of 50% rabbit, both my Black Mouth Cur, and my Black Lab/Great Dane cross are over 100 pounds... they love rabbit.

Rabbit meat is one of the healthiest meats that you can eat.

-Cholesterol level in rabbit meat is much lower than chicken, turkey, beef, pork. (Alabama A & M University 1989)
-Rabbit is lower in % of fat than chicken, turkey, beef, and pork. (U S D A circular # 549)
-Rabbit is highest in protein percentage of any meat. (U S D A circular # 549)
-The office of home economics, state relations of the U S Department of Agriculture has made extensive test and have stated that domestic rabbit meat is the most nutritious meat known to man.
-Rabbit meat is seasonal any month of the year and is especially recommended during the hot summer months, as it does not contain the heating properties of most all other meats.
-Rabbit has 795 calories per pound. Chicken 810, Veal 840, Turkey 1190, Lamb 1420, Beef 1440, Pork 2050.
-It was decreed by law in the Roman Empire that all young maidens be fed rabbit meat because it would make them more beautiful and more willing.:D


I could go on and on... about the only real problem with rabbit that I know of is the fact that you need more fat in your diet than it will provide. I think I have about 50 rabbits in the freezer (solar powered).
 
about the only real problem with rabbit that I know of is the fact that you need more fat in your diet than it will provide
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I knew there was a legitimate reason I browned my rabbit in a frying pan with oil and bacon grease. Problem solved:D

Speaking of raising rabbits in Payson... reminds me of a funny story. You ever sell any rabbits to the Daily's?
 
dogrunner said:
And quite obviously 'He who made the rabbits' never heard of mad cow disease!
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A man created problem. The problem of mad cow stemmed from feeding cows other cows. Animal feed has a percentage of protein required for health. This protein was coming from one of the least expensive sources possible, other cows. Including some animals that were disposed of as unfit for consumption, and instead rendered into part of what would become animal feed.
An issue that is still of concern because last time I read about it while the practice of doing this with cows was restricted, they were still doing it with pigs. They managed to get pigs outside of the restrictions on mammals in the industry. Pigs being declared to not be mammals.
I also think some populations would be upset to learn animals they consider unclean like pigs are potentially becoming feed for animals they consider clean.



Turning herbivores into cannibals is not a wise thing to do, and turning them into omnivores while better is still not an ideal situation.
The multiple stomachs and large digestive tract of them was not made to deal with meat, and probably makes them more susceptible to infectious agents from animals in general as well (which would mean a smaller quantity of infectious material would be successfully at establishing itself in the body more frequently).
(Eating predators is generally dangerous because they accumulate things from the animals they consume, having a higher density and greater risk of pathogens.)

Kuru, a similar disease to mad cow would infect human cannibals that ate their dead relatives.

The same species should not eat itself.


Generally you are safer if you follow the biblical food restrictions. Though some tasty things are not on it. Shellfish for example is entirely missing and quite delicious, but as filter feeders and scavengers naturally shouldn't be on the list.
Of course you still need to do your research which is limited to what people have figured out, and changes. Some deer (a clean animal) in parts of the USA can have Chronic Wasting Disease, a related prion, which I believe they originally got from domestic sheep (a clean animal) in the form of scrapie.
Diseases adapt over time, so the hosts they can infect can change, so exposing yourself to them even if not established as transmissible is advised against. Human practices enable such diseases to get established, like grinding up animals that die to feed other animals spreading infectious disease to a large population.
If you hunt animals with CWD in areas where it is a problem you may wish to consider that the tissues that harbor most of the infectious prion are the central nervous system tissues (animals with early stages can have no symptoms). So brain and spinal shots, or shots that hit a lymph node that blow such material into the muscle tissue may be best avoided.
So avoid the most effective shots. :neener:
 
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OK, no option for me. I have never eaten one, but if you want to charcoal one of the little suckers for me, I'm in! Always game to try something with a face. Just keep the green stuff away.
 
I eat them often when they are in season. Just cottontails here. I'll go out in the yard and shoot one (.22 head shot), bring it in, clean it on the kitchen counter and it goes right in the skillet, doesn't get fresher than that.
 
yu guys are missing out. just raise a few tame bunnies.much more tender and tasty and easy to take care of. if yu got the space and the time.ive got 3 does and a buck and it takes me about 20 min a day to take care of them.right now im covered up with rabbits to eat.
 
You know how when people say "it tastes like chicken" but then you eat it and it doesn't? Yeah well rabbit is not one of those things, I've had people eat rabbit fried not knowing that it wasn't chicken and then compliment the good flavor.
 
Auf Grosser Fahrt
I must be reading something wrong. Pigs declared NOT mammals?!
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Yes that is right.
Under the law mammals may not be fed to mammals, to control the spread of such disease. A precaution done in most nations to combat mad cow type disease.

However the FDA has declared pigs are not mammals. The result is that cattle can be fed to turkeys, chickens, and pigs. The birds are not mammals, and the pig is apparently not either.
These pigs fed cow can then also be fed to cattle down the road, since they are not mammals according to the FDA.
A situation better than the one of feeding cow to cow that caused mad cow to begin with, but certainly not ideal. Anything that can infect both as hosts will rapidly spread. Also something able to cross over, and that infects cows and can infect pigs is likely to also be able to infect humans since humans and pigs share a lot more zoonoosis.

So the chain that spreads such things is not entirely broken in the USA yet, like it has been in Europe.
It also means people of religions against eating pork will still be buying animals fed pork when they buy other animals because those other animals can legally be fed pork since it is not a mammal, and as a cheap source of recycled protein is included in the feed manufactured for such animals.
 
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ridgerunner1965 said:
yu guys are missing out. just raise a few tame bunnies.much more tender and tasty and easy to take care of. if yu got the space and the time.ive got 3 does and a buck and it takes me about 20 min a day to take care of them.right now im covered up with rabbits to eat.
Click to expand...

The man has a point. My mom (her mom, too) kept a hutch of rabbits in the back for years as I was growing up. That's how I learned they were good food.
 
I eat cottontails and domestics whenever I can, not because they taste amazing but because they're really easy to clean and portion out. My old standby is a Spanish preparation: Brown the salted and peppered rabbit pieces in olive oil, then deglaze pan with a little mild red wine. Set aside meat and wine, then in that same pan add some more olive oil to saute one diced sweet onion, one diced eggplant, a fistful of chopped mushrooms, and one can tomatoes. Cook that until it breaks down into a chunky sauce, then return rabbit and wine to the pan and simmer until it falls off the bone. It's good with crusty bread or over broad pasta like fettucine.

I've never hunted or eaten one of the big jackrabbits but I want to try it after reading this hunt story/recipe about jackrabbit stew: http://honest-food.net/2010/02/11/hare-stew-hard-times/
 
I did when I was in high school, but got out of it for a while. My father-in-law and I have been using it as an excuse to get out of the house when it isn't deer season the last couple of years though. It's great until his blue tick pup takes off after a deer and I'm expected to chase it down.
 
I started out hunting rabbits and squirrels with my Dad over 50 years ago here is WV. If I didn't have a bad hip I would still be hunting rabbits today (don't care about squirrel that much, but back then we we were taught that we had to eat what we shot). My favorite was rabbit stew recipe from a friend in Newfoundland. Wish I had asked for that recipe, remember it having potatoes, turnips and carrots, but not sure what else. All I remember is they were delicious after a day of hunting or ice fishing. Thanks for the post, bought back some great memories.
 
I've always heard "wait til the first HARD frost" to hunt rabbits.. as it will kill off the sick ones.

Even when you buy a rabbit from a butcher or specialty market you check the liver for spots.
 
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