03-25-2014, 06:51 PM
Animals that are properly slaughtered and butchered are pretty clean and tidy. If you're harvesting road kill or getting kills from hunters it's messier. A LOT messier. You don't get as good of a carcass, either. We trap pigs instead of chase them all over. They are killed quickly and then immediately hung to bleed out (very important) and field dressed and we get a great carcass with no bruising or hemorrhage areas. When you are gonna eat a critter, be respectful and use as much as possible.
Rabbits are a good choice for meat production. They eat really low on the food chain and can be fed from weeds and yard waste. (Although you have to be careful about which weeds and make sure there's no herbicide on them.) You can butcher one rabbit and not have to worry about storage. They are tasty, too. They are quiet and won't annoy the neighbors, their manure can be put on the garden without burning the plants. Which then makes more plants to feed to the bunnies. They multiply like, well, rabbits. There's a lot to be said for rabbits as meat producers. My problem is they are so dang cute and fuzzy that it's hard to bop them on the head.
Frequently, which animal gets eaten (by humans, anyway) depends on gender more so than species. Rooster soup cures crowing, guaranteed!
If you wish to be compassionate with animals and yet still have an animal that helps pay for it's feed, you could look into fiber animals such as mohair goats. Pygora goats are mohair goats mixed with pygmy goats so you get small fiber critters. Angora rabbits produce fine fiber with no pain or anguish to the animal. (Although PETA did just produce some sort of video "proving" inhumane treatment to angora rabbits in China, but then, that's PETA so it's not a trusted source.) In any case, if it's your rabbit you'll know it was nicely treated and the more angora fiber produced in the US, the less imported from China. Wooly sheep and alpaca are also good fiber producing critters although they are much bigger than the others. But you'll have a pet you won't have to eat in order to still have it help pay it's way.
Actually, with rabbits, you can have meat and fiber so that might be an even more multi-purpose critter than just merely a meat critter. A lot of the market lamb folks shear their lambs before sending them off to market. We need a fiber mill on this island, though.
"I like yard sales," he said. "All true survivalists like yard sales."
Kurt Wilson
Rabbits are a good choice for meat production. They eat really low on the food chain and can be fed from weeds and yard waste. (Although you have to be careful about which weeds and make sure there's no herbicide on them.) You can butcher one rabbit and not have to worry about storage. They are tasty, too. They are quiet and won't annoy the neighbors, their manure can be put on the garden without burning the plants. Which then makes more plants to feed to the bunnies. They multiply like, well, rabbits. There's a lot to be said for rabbits as meat producers. My problem is they are so dang cute and fuzzy that it's hard to bop them on the head.
Frequently, which animal gets eaten (by humans, anyway) depends on gender more so than species. Rooster soup cures crowing, guaranteed!
If you wish to be compassionate with animals and yet still have an animal that helps pay for it's feed, you could look into fiber animals such as mohair goats. Pygora goats are mohair goats mixed with pygmy goats so you get small fiber critters. Angora rabbits produce fine fiber with no pain or anguish to the animal. (Although PETA did just produce some sort of video "proving" inhumane treatment to angora rabbits in China, but then, that's PETA so it's not a trusted source.) In any case, if it's your rabbit you'll know it was nicely treated and the more angora fiber produced in the US, the less imported from China. Wooly sheep and alpaca are also good fiber producing critters although they are much bigger than the others. But you'll have a pet you won't have to eat in order to still have it help pay it's way.
Actually, with rabbits, you can have meat and fiber so that might be an even more multi-purpose critter than just merely a meat critter. A lot of the market lamb folks shear their lambs before sending them off to market. We need a fiber mill on this island, though.
Kurt Wilson
Kurt Wilson