I look at rabbits now and they're scrawny wee things. There used to be big rabbits, big fat rabbits. They actually had fat inside on the kidneys and the like.
The last three rabbits I've cooked (I admit it's been a while, I don't do it often, HWMBLT doesn't like bones in his dinner and rabbit's a footer to butcher out of the bones) looked like half grown ones but I was told they were definitely adults.
Did the mixxy cause something to change ? So that only the young ones, that bred too soon survived or something ?
Rabbit starvation is only an issue if you have to go to any great effort to catch them. If you had (not allowed nowadays and I'm not suggesting anyone takes it up again) a dog that was kind of nippy, rabbit for dinner was easy. Same with a good shot with a .22 air rifle, or a .177 if you really knew what you were doing and could guarantee getting close. I knew of someone who only used a sling shot, he regularly brought home three or four from a morning walk.
Rabbits were kept in warrens because they were good food as well as a very beautiful, soft fur.
My first courrans as a toddler were rabbit skin. Like little mocassins with the fur inside
I had a coat, hat and muff too; very warm and comfortable on a child. It's a soft draping fur, doesn't weigh all that much either.
Ye gods, but there'd be havoc if we dressed a kid in that lot nowadays
I don't hold with killing something like an ocelot or an otter or a pinemartin for it's fur, but rabbits, deer, sheep, I can't see why not; and I'm vegan these days, before anyone starts.
cheers,
Toddy