| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| cab |
Killing rabbitsAn overheard conversation last week at the allotment, between two old timers discussing how to kill rabbits. One was of the opinion that necking is quickest, the other was a sound fan of a blow to the head. Both were adamant that their own way was quickest and most humane.Which is best? |
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| sean |
I go for breaking their necks (or used to when I went ferreting). Hitting a struggling animal is a bit unreliable in my experience. | ||||
| Bugs |
How do you break the neck, do you pull it, or twist or bend it or all three? Did somebody show you how to or did you work it out for yourself? I think the neck sounds most logical to me for the reason Sean gave but you know I don't have a vast experience 
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| sean |
Hold the back legs in one hand, make a V with the first two fingers of the other hand which goes behind the head. Stretch and turn the head end hand through 90 degrees. | ||||
| boff |
I'm with Sean on this - necking them takes away the risk of trying to hit a struggler. 
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| Jonnyboy |
Never even occured to me to hit one on the head. I saw someone swing one into a tree once but that was because he hadn't been shown how to neck it. | ||||
| boff |
Argh!!! 
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| crackapple |
both ways work, but to calm a struggler, rub the implement you are using down its back against the grain of the fur. the bunny should soon calm down ready for the chop. | ||||
| Lloyd |
I used to give a sharp chop to the back of the neck whilst holding the hind feet, but then my MIL bought me a priest, and I've used that when needed ever since. | ||||
| snootycat |
Which ever method is used I hope that anyone who has done this before gets someone who is experienced to show them how to do it properly.
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| Treacodactyl |
Good point, I've watched people do it and still would worry the first time I did it but there has to be a first time. It wwas interesting to see the trainees in the abatoir in the recent TV prog taking quite a few goes at finding the correct way to slaughter an animal. |
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| timberdog |
rabsuse two finger method and ark across your shoulder blades and pull!! |
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| uk-ken |
Chinning RabbitsHello AllI was shown by an old gamekeeper years ago how to despatch rabbits quickly. The methods described are good but require a certain amount of strength and some technique. Chinning is very easy (not making light of killing an animal) and only reasonable force is required. Hold the rabbit around its neck from behind with your left hand; put your right hand under the rabbit’s bottom jaw making contact with its neck. With a swift push up and back with the right hand the rabbit is killed with no damage to the meat. Regards, Ken |
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| Tittch |
There's the tread on the head and pull the hind legs method too which is supposed to be very quick, but personally I prefer my rabbits pre-killed, skinned and gutted. You can't call me a Grundy... | ||||
| Treacodactyl |
It's good to see this post come back up as I have managed to watch a few people do the deed and then have a go myself. I did the grab the back legs with one hand and the head/neck with the other then pull and push the head back to snap the neck. I'm not completely weedy but it took a fair bit of strength to do. I also find the rabbits who have had their necks wrung have a fair bit of blood around the neck/front legs area that shot rabbits don't. |
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| whitelegg1 |
Similar thought, how do you know when a pifeon is dead.
Shot one today, still twitching...reflexes??? Gave it chest a good squeeze, to collapse its lungs....nasty bloody mess poured out of its beak! Pulled it neck, heart still beating !!! Pulled it neck again....the head came of in my hand!(A common problem with me )
I think it was dead now. Pete |
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| pricey |
I have the same problem, heads always coming of in my hand, and every time I think don't pull so hard this time.
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| Shane |
<resists Finbar Saunders moment> | ||||
| Gervase |
*Snork!* | ||||
| Tittch |
*plans to try this on Chavs next time they rocket a football into the side of the 1975 Dyane* | ||||
| spanky |
killing wounded pigeons is a simple procedure just take the birds head in your fingers and twist at 180 degrees and then press down into the chest with a bit of force this will mash the neck bones and spinal column ,if needs be get a pair of pliers and use them to crush the neck | ||||
| whitelegg1 |
Spanky,
You stand a good chance of the head coming off in your hands. Hold th pigeon in both hands, as if you were going to release a dove...Stopping it from opening it wings. Then with your thumb feel down the back bone. Then at a suitable point press hard with your thumb whilst pulling up and back on the chest/head. Back breaks, no flapping because your holding the wings, no blood spraying all over yours shoes! Pete |
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| dpack |
the pull twist works but priesting is fairly easy to learn , practise with a spoon in a sockful of sand as a stand in stunt bunny. mind your knuckles .
when ive had a pigeon to neck the head always comes off , lets them drain . if you have the bunny captive a well done priesting is as good as owt, same for fish if you are shooting bunnies , head shot .22 cal fac rifle ,no priesting involved . i prefer it to never know its got a problem if that is possible .i work towards that any way and try to reduce the stress to dinner as far as i can . most extreme priesting i ever saw was a cock pheasant challenging a volvo on the m1.a couple of tons at 80mph works . |
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| Penny Outskirts |
Who won?  
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| Lozzie |
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| dpack |
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| spanky |
well pete im 50 yrs old have been killing birds and animals for most of my life being born on a farm then being a atw sniper in the marines and now being a gamekeeper ,the method always works for me and no splattering iether mate , but we each have our own ways the trick with the pliers is for those who have'nt got the knack of doing it by hand ,incidently te method i showed is what i would normally teach young shots ,i just crush the head between my fingers and thumb
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| whitelegg1 |
Spanky,
Whitelegg2 has enough trouble seeing the pigeons when they look like their asleep!! Me thinks when they look like they've gone 10 rouns with Iron Mike Tyson, she would go off the idea of me 'dealing' with out garden pest problem/resource
Pete. Todays test is to see whether 'Christoper the Crow decoy' will tempt down some strong and flavoursome meat for us to try. Just don't let them near my winter salad!!! |
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| Snap Cap |
I allways break thier necks after I have shot them as it stops rigamortice setting in and so makes them easier to skin. | ||||
| Purple Martin |
Re: Killing rabbits
Rabbits and humans are basically the same: mammals. Which way would you prefer to die - to have your neck broken and then suffocate slowly while in pain from a fractured vertebra (which you can still feel in detail) while you are unable to move from the neck down, OR to be knocked out cold in an instant? If I had to choose, I'd go for the blow to the head. |
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| JPBearclaw |
im with spankey here gripping the birds neck with your fore fingers and pushing the back of the skull / top of spine with your thumb while pulling in with your fore finger works for me, seen to many headless birds on shoots, looks real bad 
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| Blue Sky |
Re: Killing rabbits
Did one last night. Definately quick hard blow to the back of the head vote from this corner. Instant. Rabbit chili for tea tonight. |
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| Bodger |
When you give the old bunny a rabbit chop make sure that you aim for the back of the neck rather than the back of the head . This method of killing your rabbit can lead to a little bruising of the meat .
People who sell their rabbits tend to use a method known amongst the fraternity ( not the Masons ) as chinning .
To do this you take hold of the rabbit and put the heel of your hand under the rabbits chin and push backwards sharply ,breaking its neck and killing it instantly . Its impossible to do the rabbit chop properley to a rabbit that is enmeshed in a rabbit net . If the rabbits are popping out everywhere or if you are using a long net its much simpler and quicker to chin the rabbits and move onto the next rather than to have to take out each rabbit from the net before giving it the 'coup de gras !' I have loads of rabbit recipes and its a good job because at the moment we are surrounded wall to wall by bunnies ! |
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| Purple Martin |
Lots of people who talk about breaking necks seem to think that it kills the rabbit instantly. Unfortunately this is not true: all it does is paralyse instantly so the rabbit cannot move or breathe. The rabbit is still conscious and still able to see you, and it slowly suffocates to death. | ||||
| Bodger |
PM
If the spinal column is severed then surely no messages get in and out of the brain, so possibly wrongly I thought that shutdown was about as quick as it could be . Its a bit grueome but I thought that this was exactly the same as when you pull the neck on a chicken. The nerves flutter straight away and its good night Vienna ! Nobody likes killing another animal but I genuinly can't think of a more humane metod. I must have killed thousands of rabbits in my time but I would have to think long and hard if for a minute I thought that my despatch of them wasn't as good as it could be . |
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| Purple Martin |
When the spinal cord is severed in the neck, no messages get in or out to anywhere below the neck. So you can't move, breathe, or feel anything below the neck.
Messages still get in and out above the neck: you can still see, hear, feel, and you are still awake. Think about it: the optic nerve goes directly from the eye to the brain, and hasn't been damaged by the broken neck. The same goes for other nerves above the neck (do a google for the 12 cranial nerves to find out what is still working). Your heart is still beating because it has its own automatic timer (it does not need nerve input to keep going). Remember Christopher Reeve? He had a broken neck but was still fully awake, all he needed was a ventilator to stay alive. So if your neck breaks, you die slowly from not being able to breathe, kind of like suffocating. That's why I say a blow to the head is more kind: instant knockout. By all means break the neck after knocking them out to make sure they don't wake up again ten minutes later. |
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| Gervase |
Insteresting. Hanging, involving a similar sudden and drastic dislocation of the vertebrae, was seen as the most humane method of execution. Albert Pierrepoint reckoned that death was pretty much instantaneous. And yet French studies of guillotined criminals seem to have established that a degree of consciousness remains even if the head is completely severed.
I tend to use a priest, but really more for convenience than any degree of sentiment. If a rabbit is enmeshed it can be tricky to stretch it enough to chin it or twist the neck, whereas the priest can be used even if the bunny's wrapped up. |
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| tahir |
What's a priest? | ||||
| Bodger |
Gervase
! Be honest ! How many times have you given your knuckles a smacking on a cold winters day ?
A bit like playing conkers in the school play ground , it bl**dy hurts ! Bashing the bunny on the head is also going to lead to some bleeding so for practical reasons I'll stick to the method I know best. I'm sure that we are only talking of split seconds ! |
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| Gervase |
A little club - often made of wood or horn, with some lead inserted into one end to give it a bit of weight. Called a priest because it administers the last rites! |
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| tahir |
Ta | ||||
| Biff Vernon |
All very well but how do you catch the little, err, bunnies in the first place? | ||||
| Bodger |
Biff theres stacks of ways to catch your bunnies . !
Do you want me to list them . It doesn't always seem that way but we are cleverer than the "average bun Boo Boo " Seriously I would be pepared to go through the various methods of catching rabbits if people thought that there was a need to go through them . There are of course loads of books available that probably deal with the techniques far more clearly than I could ! |