Why don't they eat wild rabbits in Australia? They have millions of them! The reason is surprising…

I started wondering recently: “There are millions of wild rabbits in Australia, but for some reason, I’ve never heard that rabbit meat is popular there.

[shawnmccarty]

A lot of horror movies start out with a bunch of "scientists " solving a problem by releasing a modified virus.

[OzMate]

As an Aussie I can assure you as a kid my mum made plenty of rabbit stews, rabbits were a cheap easy food that dad would catch with ferrets.

[lordgarion]

Is anyone else absolutely shocked by the fact that Australia, of all places, didn't have anything that would eat rabbits?

[noelwhittle]

rabbit meat kept a lot of regional Australians alive during the depression years, which is why many older folk cant be bothered with it because it reminds them of tougher times when they didnt have a choice.

[carelgoodheir]

Rabbits are part of the reason I'm alive. I was born in the Netherlands in the Winter of '43/'44 and my dad kept domesticated rabbits. There was little food to be had and the next Winter was worse, many thousands starved to death in NL. The meat from the rabbits gave my mother enough protein that she didn't run out of milk.

[binaway]

Thomas Austin, like some other early settlers, had previously tried to introduce rabbits but they all died. Austin realized these rabbits were domesticated breads which didn't know how to survive in the wild. In a letter to his sister he requested wild rabbits from a wild area of the UK he was familiar with. Rabbits are not native to the UK and were introduced from the semi desert region of Spain. These are the 24 rabbits he Austin released and they had the instincts that allowed them to flourish in Australia's environment. Initially Austin employed men to protect the rabbits. 2 years later he had to employ men to kill as many as they could to save his farm. During times of hardship, the 1930's great depression being one, rabbits proved vital for the survival of poor families.

[algernoncalydon]

When I lived in Perth the local butcher had rabbits, wild caught for five bucks a piece. Used to eat them often. He also butchered roos and the meat was a third the price of beef and in my opinion better. Went back six years later and that butcher was gone and the new butcher had rabbits for 25 dollars a piece and roo meat twice the price of beef. My brother in law used to trap rabbits on his property and eat them all the time, they were good meat, not what this video claims as tough and inedible.

[andrew]

As an Australian (and a shooter) I can tell you that a fair bit of this video is BS! I eat rabbit and my father eats rabbit, but I don't know anyone else that does. Rabbit can be purchased through butchers, but It has just become unpopular as a meat choice since the mass availability of more mainstream choices. There is no industry pushing the sale of rabbit meat. It is still popular with some of the European communities, but for generational Australians, after the 1960s it was seen as a poverty choice. You might not be able to afford lamb/beef/pork/chicken, but Mum or Dad could always shoot rabbit. It's decline in popularity is basically tied to the availability of expendable family income. Also in states like Queensland it is illegal to keep rabbits so there is no backyard rabbits; even as pets. As for it's eatability, it all depends on how it is cooked. Rabbit has almost no fat, so to prevent it from being dry some form of fat needs to be added in the cooking process. Bacon fat is a popular choice. Alternatively slow cooking produces good results.

[dimitristripakis]

As a Greek, rabbits are sold in meat shops here, along with beef, pork and chicken. And I believe rabbit is considered better than chicken. There are also very tasty recipes, best one being to fry in a casserole, and in the end pour some wine and close the fire and put lemon tree leaves on it for like 10 minutes after it's done (then throw away the lemon leaves, they are not edible). Try it, it very simple and amazing. This is a very traditional old-school Cretan recipe, 100s of years old. But the local rabbits are farmed and checked, they are not wildlife, because yes they do carry disease. You must always be very careful when processing wild life hunts (i.e. do not cut yourself with the knife used to process them, or do not mix the knife you process this meat with the knives you will eat it with). But once they are cooked, they are 100% safe.

I would love to be able to hunt and eat rabbits with a precision airgun. I used to have one (now it is stolen), but only shot balloons with it ha ha (not allowed to hunt with air rifle in Greece, you need smoothbore weapons only).

[nautifella]

My friends and I got kicked out of the boy scouts for making rabbit stew. We trapped them on a farm adjacent to the park we were camping in; we got the farmer's permission first and gave him a few after we finished. The reginal scout masters came around and asked where we got the rabbit stew, my buddy said _"We found them in those wrappers."_ and pointed a stack of hides with his breaking knife.
The shat themselves. They called our parents to come and get us (we weren't close to home) Our folks all got there around the same time and my dad asked the rangers about charges. _"No charges. They break any laws. It all them."_ he said pointing at the regional f#cks.
We all got letters from the national office ending our association with BSoA. The only truth in the charge report was the location of the jamboree. I had just made Life and was planning my Eagle project. I've hated that organization ever sense.

[brokendad]

40+ years ago we raised rabbits and dad sold rabbits for meat. My little sister was always very picky about what she ate, the family joke was that she thought chickens had four legs until she was 8 years old because we had fried rabbit much more often than chicken. She never appreciated it.

[MaxJustice]

My grandmother who is 96 years of age grew up on a farm in rural NSW in the 1930s- 1940s and the family lived on rabbit stews because it was a cheap source of meat, she and her sisters used to go out and set the traps . They also grew their own vegetables.

[chrisnore]

Rabbit was the staple meat eaten by poorer people. The 'Rabbitto" ( the man who caught rabbits and sold them door to door) was a regular in the neighbourhood I grew up in. Whilst the government tried biological means to control the rabbits, many people went out and shot their own. Often an area would be cleared and the Rabbitto would reintroduce rabbits to the area. There were some predators, dingos and wedge tail eagles were quick to pick them off. It was the environment that they adapted too. They seem to manage the floods and fires but droughts knocked them around. A low rainfall winter and subsequent low grasslands reduces the local population, kangaroos are more adaptive.

Rabbits were introduced into Victoria not NSW. As the rabbit and human populations grew the residents actually introduced foxes. This was to develop the sport of fox hunting and assumed they would control rabbit numbers in the mean time. This became a major ecological disaster as the foxes found the native species ; who had no genetic history with foxes were easier prey.
I never remember rabbit being tough meat, everyone liked it.

[jeffersondavis]

My Grandpa was a hunter of rabbits and fed his 6 children and wife during the Great Depression . That sweet, kindly man said it had to have a couple of "freezes " before he would take the Beagles out . I ate at his table a few times and rabbit was served with mac & cheese . Later I read that rabbits have no fat and are all protein. I guess you could eat nothing but rabbits and die if you didn't consume some fat.
I hope that wonderful man is out with his beagles now that he is on the other side.

[MrCites]

My great grandfather was a Rabbitoh in Sydney back in the depression. Rabbits in many areas are no longer there, calicivirus wiped many out.
Akubra hat actually recently had to start importing skins for their hats for the first time.

[gracec]

After the devastating hurricane in Miami, Florida in 1992, we had nothing to eat however, my father had been raising some rabbits that survived the storm. I asked my dad, "what are we going to eat?" He replied, "rabbit, for breakfast, lunch and dinner!" They were delicious fried up! We were without electricity for two weeks. We went through lots of rabbits. My dad was so smart!

[jozseftakacs]

Living in a rural area in the 1950's. We kids use to get up in the morning, take a rifle and go out in the pedic, shoot a couple of rabbits, and take it home to mum to cook for diner. Than we went to school.. Government bureaucracy put an end to

[fuzzbombxx-]

lots of people do eat wild rabbits here in Australia, I have a few times and its not bad. It's just not everyone everywhere all the time. But many prefer to think of bunnys as pets.

[Iampatrix]

I'm in the Bay Area, CA and I grew up occasionally eating wild rabbit that a step grandpa would hunt. I've had farmed rabbit and it's nothing special but wild rabbit is DELICIOUS. it's kinda hard to explain because it's texture is similar to dark chicken meat but it's just more robust in flavor, it tastes like the forest whereas the farmed ones taste like nothing. It just tastes rich and sweet and a little mineral...and it's so good. Aussies need to put down their meat pies and embrace wild rabbit. Then again no one has ever declared Australia as a food destination, I've known quite a few aussies and from what they explain the food sucks.

[Starphot]

We did eat farmed rabbits in the USA in the 1960's. These were in the school and military lunches, sold at supermarkets and served in some restaurants. A little different than chicken in taste, but about the same texture as chicken pieces.