Report Dead Wild Rabbits to Game and Fish (in Wyoming)

[WyoDoug]

Report dead wild rabbits to Game and Fish

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is collecting wild rabbit carcasses for Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease Virus2 testing

www.wyomingnewsnow.tv

 

[Deleted member 38069]

I'll leave the .22 at home!

 

[WyoDoug]

I'll leave the .22 at home!

I am taking mine with me. Enough healthy ones to make a meal with. Recommendation is to clean rabbits with gloves on which I do. Diseased rabbits have been around for years and common sense and wearing gloves when handling them works. Plus you through away any that don't look good when you clean them. You also should not shoot rabbits that don't look healthy and don't run from you.

 

[Deleted member 38069]

Sounds like too much fuss. Ill chase grouse or trout instead.

 

[WyoDoug]

Sounds like too much fuss. Ill chase grouse or trout instead.

LOL everyone to their own. But seriously you just have to do what you think you need to do to be safe. Me, I like wabbit way too much to just give it up. I have butchered rabbits for years including butchering commercial ones for the restaurant industry. I have learned what to look for. I used to raise rabbits commercially and butchered maybe thousands over the years including the wild cottontail ones. Still can be safe to eat with a little common sense.

 

[WyoDoug]

Another thing, and this is just me. Others may do different. However, I do not recommend consumption of rabbits shot in the warmer weather. I only hunt rabbits between the first really hard frost and roughly March time frame. That kills most of the parasites and diseases rabbits face. My rabbit hunt this year starts in December and I might stop hunting them in March. Lots on most of the HMAs close to town so that is where I get them.

Don't write off jack rabbits either. Secret to cooking them is low and slow. I sometimes marinate them and bake them.

 

[Tradewind]

You also should not shoot rabbits that don't run from you.

So, I have to shoot them on the run......

 

[WyoDoug]

So, I have to shoot them on the run......

LOL if yer that good maybe. I would not shoot one that is just sitting there not eating, not doing anything, looking lethargic or something