Freezer full of rabbit

[jem seeley]

Getting a free source of rabbits at the moment thanks to local hunters.They seem to be coming round every Monday evening.After the first time they came round shooting in my local fields I found that they had just left everything they had shot.Unfortunately my initial discoverys were a little late-rabbits already distended,eyes pecked out,covered in flies in the midday sun. The next time they came round I was straight out after they had gone with a lamp & picked up a few within a couple of minutes.If they are leaving all they shoot behind I reckon there must be dozens of corpses lying around the local fields What a disrespectful waste!

 

[Fallowstalker]

Try not to be to hard on them. Although it appears to be a terrible waste, DEFRA have declared the whole of the UK mainland a rabbit clearence area. This means every landowner/occupier has a legal responsibility to control rabbits on their land. I have been in a situation were my freezer is full of rabbits, I'm eating the damn things every day, I can't sell them and I'm begging people to take them from me.

I do wonder however, how much effort they have put into finding a home for them, and if it comes down to pure vermin control and nothing else, I certainly wouldn't leave them lying around for all to see.

 

[Ahjno]

Getting a free source of rabbits at the moment thanks to local hunters.They seem to be coming round every Monday evening.After the first time they came round shooting in my local fields I found that they had just left everything they had shot.Unfortunately my initial discoverys were a little late-rabbits already distended,eyes pecked out,covered in flies in the midday sun. The next time they came round I was straight out after they had gone with a lamp & picked up a few within a couple of minutes.If they are leaving all they shoot behind I reckon there must be dozens of corpses lying around the local fields What a disrespectful waste!

Why would they leave the rabbits out in the field? I totally agree with you mate: it's a direspectful waste. The least they could do is pick them up and make sure it got sorted in a decent manner, and NOT let them to rot ... It just makes it *yuck* to go out in the field where there's hunted on bunnies.

Although I do find you should eat what you kill, they could have sold them and make some money ... Christmas is near (either bunnies on a restaurant plate or money for pressies) ...

Anyway, that's not the way to treat dead animals - even if they are considered as a pest.

 

[Kane]

Only encourages more vermin ...

Kane

 

[jem seeley]

Our local game dealer is still advertising for rabbits......Noticed a fair few rabbits about with myxamatosis so I guess the local population is going to take a dive again anyway.Had just finished rabbit fencing my garden last year when myxi last struck-went from being over-run to none in a few weeks

 

[Longstrider]

As I do some part time work for a local pest control company shooting rabbits I can have as many as a hundred rabbits to "get rid of" after a good nights lamping. All of the rabbits I shoot are collected and used in one way or another. They are either sold on to a game dealer, given to friends, or eaten by me. Any that are not big enough or in good enough condition for the above are frozen and used by the company owner to feed his or his helpers ferrets. Simply leaving the corpses lying where they fell is both a disgusting waste and a disgraceful way to treat your quarry.

If you have permission to be on the land you are gathering up the rabbits from, you might do welll to have a word with the landowner about this, and let him speak to the shooters. He just might be very interested to know that they come regularly on a Monday night, especially if they dont already have his permission to be there.....

 

[Lurch]

Only encourages more vermin ...

Kane

Just what I was thinking, the local corvid and fox population would soon catch on.