Eating the local wildlife

[Thomasinaa]

Is this something any of you do or have thought about?
Eg shooting rabbits, hares or deer, poaching pheasants, etc?
Eating roadkill?
Using a pet (dog or cat or ferret) to catch wild animals which you then eat?
Catching and eating snails or other mini-bugs?

We live quite rurally (East Sussex - UK) and it's very common that people kill the local wildlife to eat it. Deer, pheasants, quail, pigeons, rabbits are all considered very normal. Having moved from a town it's all new to me at the moment, but nearly everyone owns some kind of rifle (even if only an air gun) .... I shan't personally be eating any local wildlife any time soon, although I could be tempted if starving.

Apparently badger is quite nice...

Not sure London's road kill pigeons are good for you, so no.

It would be great to see more deer, rabbit and squirrel being provided for people to eat.
All healthy tasty meat with a low impact environmental footprint - indeed, they're creating problems with their destruction of woodland.

Does anyone know what the law is on shooting animals? I assume that it's ok to shoot rabbits, presumably not pheasants as they are bred by someone. How about hares and deer?

When our cat was young she used to bring in lots of mice and birds. Could be useful if the shit really hits the fan? She would literally just pop outside for a couple of minutes and come back in with a mouse. The Romans used to eat them.

I read somewhere to never eat larger roadkill. Sometimes ) half dead creatures are euthanised by vets at the roadside. Not sure how true this is.

Couldn’t use my dogs to hunt, the greedy fuckers would scoff every last scrap

Other than that I have no guns and no experience so would probably struggle, but I wouldn’t be squeamish if came to it.

I can't see myself doing this.

my dad often used to hunt animals to eat when i was younger. we often had deer, rabbit, pheasant, and trout. lots of memories of my dad sat on the back step skinning a rabbit. i still eat it now on the rare occasions he brings something home but my kids won’t touch it.

My ds is fab with a catapult. Been arrested for poaching though!!
Ex sil used to take his Lurchers out lamping.
Ds eats what he kills, rabbit, squirrel, game.

We essentially do this already. Dogs and cat are no help though. We eat rabbit/pigeon/pheasant fairly regularly.

Yes we’re rural and get pheasant from shoots, venison from roadkill shares, rabbit from farmer. Rule is you can’t pick up up a if you run it over but you can call if you’re following or you can call someone to pick it up. We raise village pigs too.
Badger isn’t nice at all.

Generally, you can shoot anything on your own land, but you wouldn’t shoot things like deer or hares willy nilly like you would rabbits/pigeons. For example, you wouldn’t shoot deer during breeding season. There is talk of shooting hares becoming a thing again to try and stop hare coursing (which is illegal)

Pheasants are owned by someone. But it might make sense to get in touch with a local shoot to find out what they do with the shot birds.

Shooting anything will require skill & knowledge and appropriate weaponry - I wouldn't advocate anyone going out and doing it but I'd like to see more local supply chains for wild meat.

I really think they should equip people with the skills to do this when they visit the food bank, get people back to self sufficiency (i’m being facetious btw...reminds me of a why don’t the poor just grow their own thread from a while back!).

Not for me I’m afraid, I don’t really eat much meat and would rather forag and be veggie/vegan than kill/eat wildlife. Although I suppose if I was starving and someone offered it on a plate I wouldn’t say no

Quails are very rare in the UK and are fully protected, same as nearly all wild birds. There are open seasons for the quarry species eg pheasant. basc.org.uk/game-and-gamekeeping/quarry-species-shooting-seasons/

I'd be shit at it. Vegan diet supplemented by insects if it ever got that bad. I wish I wasn't rubbish at it but I would be.
I know my strengths and this isn't one of them.

Rabbits, wood pigeon and squirrel can be shot any time. Other species such as deer, grouse etc have open and closed seasons.
Pheasants sort of belong to someone, as they are initially reared from chicks in an estate, but once they are loose and on your land,you can shoot in season as they are then counted as wild.
Same rule for most other stuff, if it's on your land, or land where you have permission to shoot, in season ( or has no season) and you aren't within 50 yards of a road, go ahead.

And obviously have a license for a rifle or shot gun.
Air rifle doesn't require one, but must be restricted to 12.5 ft/lb.
Hunting with dogs is mainly illegal, cats have their own rules, so a highly trained hunting cat dragging a deer through the cat flap would be fine!

And no red listed birds can be shot either.

Seriously- you can just shoot at squirrels, rabbits and wood pigeons with an air rifle?

What if you’re a crap shot and you just badly injure them? Aren’t there any regulations at all?

I guess animal welfare legislation would kick in then, if you deliberately caused suffering to an animal, but yes, they are classified as vermin so can be shot ( although I think with pigeons they need to be a good safety, health and safety or crop damage problem, but think that's very loosely enforced).