What should I use to kill my rabbits???

A couple weeks ago I took a pig to slaughter. I asked how they dispatch them and was told a 22 rifle. I also asked if they butcher goats. Yep. I asked how they kill them and they told me they slit their throats because it's more humane....????

I don't think I believe that and also not sure I'd ever have them butcher a goat for me. But on the other hand, we tried butchering chickens by cutting their throats and letting them bleed....but I prefer cutting off their head and that's the way we do it now.
 
I guess the bottom line is each person has to make a decision based on their experience and beliefs as to what will work best, fastest, safest, and humane for them and their animals. I have no issue with coning a chicken and bleeding it out. I don't think I'd kill a goat or sheep (or other large animal) that way, as they are much larger animals and it would take much longer to bleed them out and it would be harder to restrain them. IMHO I think the struggling pumps acid to the muscles as well which effects the quality and flavor of the meat. I prefer a completely relaxed animal who one moment is peacefully going about it's life and the next second is dead and gone with no suffering.

I have had to help people track gut shot animals and that's no way for any animal to die. One shot, one kill, no pain, and no suffering is the way it should be done. Of course there will ALWAYS be that one animal who goes berserk even though brain dead, but I've seen more animals do this and go spastic when bludgeoned with a club than being shot. IME, there's a loud bang, the animal drops, and that's all she wrote.
 
"Any firearm is an accident waiting to happen."

I respect the opinions of others. I'll discuss ideas with anyone. I'll gratefully ask advice of others who have greater knowledge of something. In this case, I can definitively state from a lifetime of experience as a user and educator that the above statement is not factual or accurate.

There are plenty of methods of dispatch to choose from. Use of a firearm by a responsible person has its place. A firearm is no more dangerous, of and by itself, than a hairpin. I personally use cervical dislocation followed quickly by carotid severing. I don't ask for anybody's approval nor criticism, it's just the method I choose to use. Suit yourself.
 
I have a hunting background for all of my life , so I am very comfortable in using a gun and yes, I have used a gun to dispatch quit a few large farm animals then immediatly cut their throats to bleed out and in the same motion to sever their spinal chord within meer seconds for myself and family. However, using the other methods are much more effective and more humane than a gun for use on small animals such as rabbits, chickens, etc.. So here just a couple examples of a use of a firearm accident just waiting to happen, One of my neighbors and his friend have hunted all of their lives too. They whent pheasant hunting to a sugarbeet field that they had permission to hunt. As they were ready to stop at the field , the buddy saw 5 rooster pheasants just 10 yards from where they stopped. He slowly steped out of the car, loaded his shotgun, Aimed his shotgun over the car and pulled the trigger just as my neighbor steped sideways and in the line of fire, loosing his head that rolled into the field. I had a 3 month old filly playing out in the corrall while her dam was eating hay in the barn stall. The filly broke her leg bone in multiple places. I called my Vet.,( also a friend of mine who lived just 2 miles from my place ) who had a lifetime experience with horses to come out to put the filly down. He shot her with a snub nose .32 point blank into her forhand. Instead of dropping down like a rock as expectd, she leaped into him, and as they both dropped onto the ground with the filly on top of him, breaking his arm. I calmly asked if I should now put him down too. I drove him to the hospital for treatment. So, giving advice to someone that they do not even know or know about or a new animal owner to use a firearm to dispatch any animal is irrisponsible.
 
I was going to leave this conversation until I read your last sentence. Irresponsible? For stating how we choose to dispatch animals?

I know a large animal vet who euthanized an animal via injection and that animal didn't go down. He had to fight to give it more meds.

That man should never have taken that shot, killing your neighbor. That is both illegal and very poor practice, to fire when someone is in between you and your target.

When we state our practices, any practices, we assume a basic level of competence and assume that the person reading our information has the capability to make their own decisions as to what they are comfortable with. That's all we can do. To say no one should EVER use a firearm to dispatch an animal is insulting to people who have to make hard decisions for their animals on a daily basis. And no, I do not believe everyone should use a firearm. My husband and I regularly target practice and are familiar with all safety guidelines regarding hunting and firearm use.

Ok I'm done now.
 
@Bossroo Look, yes, a gun can kill (as can a knife, a ball bat, a car, etc), and yes, accidents do happen. To eliminate a tool because accidents happen is ludicrous at best and stupid at worst. I worked in a meat room at a grocery store as a young man and watched an experienced butcher cut his finger off on a band saw used to cut pork chops (among other uses). Accidents happen... It's why they are called accidents... damage done unintentionally... that doesn't mean band saws should never be used because they are an accident waiting to happen. I too have hunted all my life and have witnessed misfires and accidents with firearms. Luckily none I've witnessed have cost a life. As for your friend hunting from the road (illegal), shooting across an automobile (illegal & stupid), and trying to kill those pheasants illegally, well, yeah...pretty stupid and not using the tool properly or legally.

My daughter was crossing the street, in a cross walk, with the walk signal, and got slammed into by a truck making a right turn. Crossing the street should never be done as it's a accident waiting to happen. Life is about risk management. Knowledge, training and experience mitigate risk.

Would I hand a loaded gun to someone who has never used a gun before and say here, go kill your rabbit? No, of course not, that would be stupid, and irresponsible. Would I offer to teach the person how to use a gun to humanely kill their animals? Yes, and that would NOT be irresponsible or any more an accident waiting to happen than life in general.

Stop with the liberal, anti-gun agenda already. You can no doubt find hundreds of accident examples. I can find millions of successful animal kills with guns with NO accidents. Just tally up the deer kills from rifle season from every state for one year. Add that to small game, waterfowl, upland birds, etc. That doesn't even include domestic animals. I would expect you get the point.
 
That beet field was several hundred acres with farm's dirt roads along irrigation ditches dividing the fields . So NOT a County road at all, only private dirt roads fo r efficiency of getting around the fields. Those two must have had STUPID for breakfast and it stuck. I was taught gun safety by a life long farmer and hunter . At every gun safety class the first thing that he said was for everone to assume that eveyone else is an absolute idiot and has NO IDEA as to how to even to pick up a gun.( Backyard wanna be farmers are no exception when it comes to handling a firearm. ) Then he would go on with the day' s lesson. I was allowed to hunt on his farm for the next 30 + years untill he died and the property was sold to a developer. I taught my kids gun safety as well as hunting safety along with all the rules and regulations conserning those activities. I am a HUGE SUPPORTER OF GUN RIGHTS AND HUNTING and DEFINATELY N O T a liberal by any streatch of the immagination. We used to live in a very liberal town where I invited the extreamly liberal mayor to NEVER CAST HIS SHADOW ON OUR DOORWAY EVER AGAIN when he started to spout how great a job he was doing. NOT !!! He even chastised me for teaching a friend the right and proper way to shoot a steer and butcher it properly as his view was for everyone to become a vegatarian. Hey , I'm a carnivore ! Be SAFE !!!
 
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