Is there a season for rabbits?

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Is there a season for rabbits?
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Wombat

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 396
Location: SW Cheshire

Posted: Wed Nov 03, 04 7:54 am Post subject:
I don't remember there being a season for rabbits, thats why there are so many of the damn things around. Went out on Monday night with lamp on my two acre field, shot 2 out of 8 that were grazing around. So, so many, making such a mess Wombat

Jonnyboy

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 23956
Location: under some rain.

Posted: Wed Nov 03, 04 12:52 pm Post subject:
Very strange, I always follow the old adage that you only shoot them when there's an 'R'in the month. Although over here it's been a quiet year for them, very wet and cold

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45674
Location: Essex

Posted: Wed Nov 03, 04 12:53 pm Post subject:

Deerstalker wrote:

When I said "season", I meant better eating!

So you're after some spices for them?

anneka

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 158

Posted: Wed Nov 03, 04 2:30 pm Post subject:

I always understood that the month with an R in it, was more to do with the quality of the rabbits than to fit in with a reproductive system. I thought that they reproduced all year round anyway - probably ignorance on my part. Quality of the rabbit is probably something to do with condition in the females?

Did see the first mixy rabbit I have seen for months though yesterday, by way of conversation.

Anneka

Gervase

Joined: 17 Nov 2004
Posts: 8655

Posted: Thu Nov 18, 04 11:44 am Post subject:
I've found them at their fattest from May through to October, when the food's most plentiful. As vermin, like pigeons, there's no official 'season', and these days they do seem to breed all year round.

judyofthewoods

Joined: 29 Jan 2005
Posts: 804
Location: Pembrokeshire

Posted: Tue Feb 08, 05 9:50 pm Post subject:

Vermin or not, no animal should ever suffer unnecessarily, referring to young left starving. But if they do breed all year round, it seems a difficult dilemma, and would seem to leave only live trapping with frequent inspection as the only humane-ish way, making sure one is only killing non-lactating females or male animals, at least in the milder south, if global warming should be responsible. Has anyone in the north found the same as deerstalker?

judyofthewoods

Joined: 29 Jan 2005
Posts: 804
Location: Pembrokeshire

Posted: Tue Feb 08, 05 10:26 pm Post subject:
In your situation I think what you are doing is the best solution, as you say, others would do it, possibly less humanly. I think shooting is the most humane for the animal about to die, and if eaten saves another farmed animal from being eaten. At least the rabbit enjoyed freedom, for what its worth, and had an unsuspcting quick end.

judyofthewoods

Joined: 29 Jan 2005
Posts: 804
Location: Pembrokeshire

Posted: Tue Feb 08, 05 11:17 pm Post subject:

All but a vegan would be in a position to criticise anyone for shooting for food. Trouble is the way meat is marketed, its so sanetised, a chunk of something in a plastic container, far removed from the factory farmed animal, the lorry ride, the abatoir. If all meat was sold the way one local butcher does, who hangs whole carcasses on the wall outside, then people would have a more realistic view on meat and where it comes from.

Lloyd

Joined: 24 Jan 2005
Posts: 2699

Posted: Tue Feb 08, 05 11:54 pm Post subject:
Last edited by Lloyd on Wed Feb 09, 05 12:30 pm; edited 1 time in total

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Wed Feb 09, 05 9:44 am Post subject:

judyofthewoods wrote:

All but a vegan would be in a position to criticise anyone for shooting for food.

A vegan has to eat food that takes up farming space, which necessitates that less land is available for other wild species of plant and animal. In effect, a vegan is as indirectly responsible for animal death as anyone else.

judyofthewoods

Joined: 29 Jan 2005
Posts: 804
Location: Pembrokeshire

Posted: Wed Feb 09, 05 12:30 pm Post subject:

Cab wrote:

judyofthewoods wrote:

All but a vegan would be in a position to criticise anyone for shooting for food.

The vegan argument goes that less land is necessary to feed people on vegetable protein than is needed for livestock farming, but you are right, whatever we eat, we are responsible for death, its the way of nature. The bottom line is not to eat and consume* excessively, do it as ethically as we can, keep our own numbers down, and there will be enough to go around for everyone and everything, i.e. not just humans.
*by consume I mean as in use of resources, which all destroys habitat through direct depleteon (mining, quarrying, logging, farming, distribution network) and poisoning.

Jonnyboy

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 23956
Location: under some rain.

Posted: Wed Feb 09, 05 12:35 pm Post subject:

Cab wrote:

judyofthewoods wrote:

All but a vegan would be in a position to criticise anyone for shooting for food.

That seems to be pushing the hypothetical argument a bit far if you ask me. The only people who could question meat eaters would be those who only ate fallen fruit after asking all the wildlife around if they aren't hungry.

McLay455

Joined: 23 Nov 2004
Posts: 89
Location: West of Scotland

Posted: Mon Feb 14, 05 9:10 am Post subject: Season for rabbits
As my old poacher pal used to say You should only shoot rabbits if the day ends in a Y!!

DarrenG

Joined: 26 Dec 2004
Posts: 110
Location: Lincolnshire Fens

Posted: Thu Feb 17, 05 7:44 am Post subject:
well gassing cant be done anymore, some people prefer milky does, and if you kill a lactating rat take the babies if you find them to Judy to hand rear, and surely a dog caught rabbit is the most ethical way to control the rabbit population that you want to eat, as it doesnt use any of the earths sources such as lead(shooting), and its either dead or away

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Thu Feb 17, 05 9:08 am Post subject:

Jonnyboy wrote:

You mean fruitarians? You do get them.

I think it's important that just like we omnivores have to be aware of how our food is produced and what the environmental and ethical issues are, a vegan or vegetarian must have the same considerations. If you're a vegan because you believe that harming animals is unethical, you must face the reality that growing plants for food hurts animals. It's unavoidably true. That doesn't mean that a vegetarian or vegan can't question an omnivore, but it does mean that there are some pointed questions that can be asked back.

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