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A few months ago, we inherited some rabbits from someone leaving the country and the time has come to prepare them for the plate (vegetarians look away now).

Skinning's the easy part, with plenty of information in books and blogs. But I need a quick, effective way to kill the rabbits in the first place. People I've spoken to say it's easy to break a rabbit's neck, holding the back end in the left hand and the head in the right. But these are not small animals - at least 3lbs with head, guts and skin removed - and I didn't find it so easy this morning.

they did it on river cottage the other night - it will still be on channel 4 on the 'on demand' in the internet - have a look - i remember mum and dad putting rabbits with mixametosis out of their misery when we were kids - they used to pull their necks until they 'clicked' which severed the spinal cord.

If breaking neck by pulling is difficult you can try holding it by the back legs, it usually will try to lift its head, convenient for hitting on the back of the neck with lump of wood.

Thanks guys. Sadly, I can't even watch River Cottage on youtube 'cos my computer's too slow; but I'll try and find someone who recorded it (lots of English here in France). I suspect I should have had my thumb, not my fingers, on the back of the neck. I did have a fallback plan in my pocket - a length of iron bar - but will find a longer piece of wood and try the back-leg method before the next bunny. (The mummy rabbit just had a litter of 10, so I've got to find something that works...)

I've found the best way is to hit them on the head in front of the ears with something heavy (I use a fibreglass billy club originally made for sending tuna-sized fish into the great beyond), and then cut their throats with a thin, sharp knife. It's the quickest method I know, short of shooting them.
I usually set the rabbit in a patch of grass first, then stroke it to calm it down some. It makes the process a bit less painful.
I find that holding by the back legs gets the rabbit excited and sets it is a very stressful state.

Thanks MIE. I was looking at some forums last night and one spoke of something called a 'priest' (so named because it administers the last rights), which sounds like a weighted cosh. Also mentioned was 'chinning', which was described as an upper cut to the chin, with the neck held in the V of the other hand. I was thinking about putting the next rabbit down on some grass, too. Or from the way I saw the mother attack fresh carrots this evening...

I find one .22 air rifle shot under the chin aimed upwards and forwards (is if to exit between the eyes), works very well.

Our neighbours string up the rabbits and cut into the jugular, aiming just below the ear at the edge of the jawbone.

Guy here shows how he does it (about half way through the vid)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJAWkOx-S38

here you go

theabsinthefairy wrote:I find one .22 air rifle shot under the chin aimed upwards and forwards (is if to exit between the eyes), works very well.

Our neighbours string up the rabbits and cut into the jugular, aiming just below the ear at the edge of the jawbone.

not trying to have a go here but

1 I cant see how you can hold a struggling rabbit still to shoot it like that and be safe

2 as for your neighbour they obviously arent very humane

even when you are going to eat an animal it deserves respect

Mainer in Exile wrote:I've found the best way is to hit them on the head in front of the ears with something heavy (I use a fibreglass billy club originally made for sending tuna-sized fish into the great beyond), and then cut their throats with a thin, sharp knife. It's the quickest method I know, short of shooting them.
I usually set the rabbit in a patch of grass first, then stroke it to calm it down some. It makes the process a bit less painful.
I find that holding by the back legs gets the rabbit excited and sets it is a very stressful state.

the accepted method if you must cosh a rabbit is to hit it BEHIND the ears as that is where the brain is

Agree totally with MIE.

1. Start with the 'Priest'. That should put the rabbit out cold - maybe even kill it. (It kills fish).

2. Then adopt the Islamic approach; ie. a single slit with a razor sharp knife across the jugular. Hold up over a bucket. Wear overalls or something your not too fussed over.

And putting the Rabbit on grass first and calming it is definitely a good idea. What makes animal death 'distressing' - so to speak - is the stress of it. For human and animal it should be done as calmly as possible.

Carltonian Man wrote:Guy here shows how he does it (about half way through the vid)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJAWkOx-S38

I watched this video and surprisingly I was a bit squeemish but then I was a vegy for 9 years,lol. however this link soon saw me straight. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1kPaYvZ ... re=related if you watch this one, one of the blokes despatches a rabbit before taking it out of the net at about 30 secs and it is very fast. I doubt wether the rabbit had time to blink from hitting the net.