Field Dressing Rabbit
Rabbit is such a tasty meat and has a very nice fur. The fur is very easy to remove, but if you wish to keep it you may want to spend some time and remove it carefully, peeling it back slowly. If you are not interested in the fur, you can just quickly pull it off. Either way, we will show you how to field dress to the point of removing the fur.
Step 1 - Remove Head and feet
Once you have harvested your Rabbit, quickly remove its head and all 4 feet. The front paws remove at the wrist, the back paws are a little higher at the first joint. Removing these now is cleaner and easier to do before you gut the animal. Because the tail is so small it is easy to leave it on at this stage.
Step 2 - Open up and remove the organs
Pinch the skin in the stomach area, pulling it out from the body. Make an incision into this pinch making sure not to cut the organs. Once you are able to, spread the cut open just enough that you can get the tip of your knife in with the sharp edge pointing out. This will help to avoid cutting any organs. Cutting up and away from the organs, cut the skin up to the base of the rib cage. Then cut upwards and away from the organs down towards the vent (anus). Cut around and remove the sex organ. Once cut opened, hold the Rabbit head side up and let gravity help as you reach in with two fingers as far up into the body cavity as you can, grab the "guts" and pull them down and out. After the stomach and intestines are removed, you may need to cut the diaphram and reach in further to remove the lungs and heart.
Step 3 - Remove the pelt
Continue the initial cut to the base of the throat. Then insert the tip of the knife into the underside where the front paw was removed and cut towards the top of the rib cage until you meet with the initial incision used to remove the organs. Repeat for the other front leg. Cut at the base of the tail, above the vent but below the tail. Cut until you reach the tail bone but DO NOT cut through the tail bone. Make sure the initial cut from the removal of the organs meets with this cut. Insert the tip of the knife where you removed the back feet and cut along the underside of the hind leg towards the incision used to remove the organs. Repeat for the other hind leg. Begin to remove the fur over the shoulders of the Rabbit as if removing a jacket. Getting started is the hardest part so take your time. Once it begins to peel away enough, work it until you can get your fingers between the back of the front leg and the pelt. Repeat for the other front leg. At this point you can begin to pull with more force, using the fur itself as leverage. Once enough is removed you can grab the body in one hand and the fur in the other and pull with force.
Click Here to watch a video of field dressing a rabbit without concern of keeping the fur.
Click Here to watch a video of how to quickly field dress a rabbit. Use this method at your own risk.
