Calling posh mumsnetters (and plebby ones who are into poaching): Does rabbit count as game?

[lummox]

Have got a rabbit (whole one from a French supermarket) and my preggy friend is worried that she can't eat it because it is game.

Does anyone know if it is?

As everyone says, yes it's game and why can't you eat it when pg?

BTW - Does anyone want nice fat tender wild rabbit? DH & I are shooting 2 or 3 times a week at the moment - there are hundreds of rabbits this year which usually means an outbreak of mixy is on the cards

But I've eaten so much rabbit recently that for the past week I've just been cooking it for the dog

lucky dog! i am surprised about not eating it when pg.

Wendy, your friends DH is absolutely 100% not allowed to shoot pheasant now. Completely not on. And illegal under the Wildlife and Countryside Act. They are raising their young at the moment.
Also it is never on to shoot a pheasant on the ground.

He'll lose his gun licence if he isn't careful.

I'm quite shocked, I don't know anyone who would do that. Is he recently moved from London and a bit overexcited at having a gun perchance?

norks we had hundreds of rabbits last year and mixy this year! n wilts

PPH - one of our near neighbours is a QC (country born and bred too) and he so hates the pheasants getting at his veg that he shoots them all year round whether they're in flight or not. Probably with a blunderbuss. He is awfully old!

pheasant shooting season - 1st October to 31st January very illegal to do otherwise

Glad someone else has pointed out the illegality of shooting pheasants at this time of year! Was shocked to read that

Also... VERY out of order shooting one on the ground at ANY time of year you bounder!

Hmm - don't know if it was on the ground or not - she did look a bit shifty when she told me (not that I'd know, obv)

Also it's not an arable area so woodpigeon not technically vermin either. Tsk tsk. And him a pillar of the community. He is a law unto himself type.

He shoots squirrels too, about 50 last year, hardly any left this year, is that OK? (Not to eat of course)

DP a 'poacher' from the past says its classed as vermin, if you need a recipe for the best rabbit pie evvver I'll give you one.
When I first started courting DP he lived with his nanna; DP nanna asked me to get her a loaf out of the chest freezer, anyway either I had to lift of the microwave, or I could just lift the lid up and grope and grab for said bread; so I groped and grabbed ... a dead frozen UNSKINNED rabbit, shocked moi, just a little!

I'd like to think I'm not a pleb, any way DP can't go lamping for rabbits now, not now the hunting with dogs law has come in.

I have found that rabbit bought from the supermarket in France is not 'gamey' in the way that it often is in the UK. I think that here it's treated as game and hung. Don't particularly like it gamey myself, and don't eat rabbit here. But in France it's just treated like another sort of meat, and doesn't taste like it's been hanging around for ages, so will be fine I'm sure as long as you obey all the other rules about cooking thoroughly, etc. Dh makes rabbit stew with gnocchi. Yum!

I don't hang the rabbits we shoot. Quick gutting and into the oven. Not gamey at all.

Condolences, littlelapin.

woodpigeon pretty much always classed as vermin in my book. squirrels - shoot away (my gardener has an air rifle in the tractor shed for that very purpose and got one dead between the eyes just the other day )
rabbits ditto. pheasant... well apart from anything else someone probably put it down and is feeding it at vast expense. shooting one in your garden out of the window on the ground is wrong on so many levels it is difficult to know where to start!
norks lol about the blunderbuss

ooh, this thread has spun off in an interesting direction!

LL - little Emmy will live to fight another day (well, not exactly live, as he is already in the fridge), but we are going for roast chicken instead.

ta muchly for the contributions. and all this info on hunting is going to help my village cred no end

Friend's DH not a QC but is a legal type, and he hates them getting into his veg too!

I will pass on your feelings on the subject, pph - might suggest blunderbuss