Rabbits for Meat

Cute and Controversial

These are not pets: Bunny Enthusiast Trigger Warning

Why Rabbits?

Let’s start with ‘why meat at all?’ Meat has been given a bad rep lately. We’re being told that cow farts are putting a hole in the ozone(or something like that). Sounds a bit far fetched to me when the average Canadian commutes 60 kilometres a day for work, using fossil fuels to get there. But to each their own on contentious subjects like cow farts.

In the pursuit of self reliance I need to raise and butcher my own meat. Getting enough nourishment from fruits and veggies that I grow isn’t possible for me. In the past going vegetarian has made for an unhappy, grumpy, tired Amy. So I need to learn how to produce my own protein. Starting with rabbits.

Here’s the scoop on why I believe that having my own animals for meat is sustainable.

Rabbits happily eat grass that we can’t eat in abundance. Then what they do -while pooping fertilizer for the garden -is grow up into big, tasty, nutritious rabbits. All while making more rabbits at breakneck speed.

Nutritional Benefits

Rabbit meat is high in protein and low in fat. It’s SO lean that you can actually make yourself sick if you eat too much of it without a balanced diet. Additionally the protein is more easily digested and it’s low in cholesterol. Honestly I’m surprised that gym-rats don’t swap chicken for rabbit. It’s also high in iron, which is great for us anemic folk.

Simple Needs

I’m high altitude farming. Many vegetables won’t grow here without a greenhouse. One thing that does grow well is grasses that bunnies eat. I have a limited amount of water currently which rules out bigger livestock like pigs and cows. It also gets cold and I don’t have any options for keeping a hairless oinker warm. One big sign for me that rabbits are a good choice in my location is an abundance of wild hares!

Other Uses

Fur. When a chicken is butchered, do the feathers get used? Usually not. At best they’ll go into a manure pile. When you butcher a rabbit that beautiful soft fur can be used for any number of things. I’m looking forward to trying my hand at making things out of that beautiful fur. Not only do you eat the animal, but you get to honour it by making it into something beautiful.

Fertilizer. Animals don’t poop manure for your garden. Manure is poop, plus time. It’s recommended in most scenarios to let animal poop decompose for a season before you put it on your plants. Rabbits however are different. Their droppings can be used directly on the garden with less risk of burning your plants and without concern of spreading pathogens.

Downsides

Rabbits are cute af. They’re sweet and soft and don’t have a mean bone in their bodies. I just got a couple of new bucks that are over 8 pounds each - pretty big and SO SWEET. They hop up to me looking for attention. That said, one thing that I did not know is that rabbits do this one delightfully gross thing. They kick their back feet up in the air and simultaneously fling pee EVERYWHERE. Did you know they do that? Now I know.

In Summary

Killing things sucks. Cute things especially. However I’m someone that wants to make my own meat and know were the things that I consume come from. I feel that I need to be able to look the creature that I’m going to eat in the eye, respect the life that I’ve taken and try to use every bit of it. For me it’s an ethics thing. If I can provide my meat animals a happy life before they’re dispatched I like to think I’m doing a good thing.

So far in my journey of self reliance rabbits check all of the boxes. In time I may find a reason that they don’t make sense but for now rabbits are the key.