Wild Game

For the masses rabbit started to fall out of fashion around the 60s for a variety of reasons. Today I enjoy rabbit but only when on the menu at a restaurant. This I regularly see on menus abroad but very rarely indeed at home. Silly really as its a meat which my parents and their generation 'purchased' and ate regularly. However, that may be one contributory reason for its demise as a British ingredient in our every day cooking, it was considered common. The other reason may be the 'bunny factor' (like that bambi factor with venison) and that awful deliberately introduced disease which was designed to keep their ever growing numbers down.

Clean and health rabbit is out there, could once again be  abundant in shops, cheap and delicious, we just don't want to eat it.

I don't mind pheasant & partridge, as they are bred in their hundreds of thousands for the gun.  I do draw the line at wild fowl cos I'm sure a lot of shooters can't tell the difference between Mallards and Cranes.    

I personally think that it was myxomatosis that killed the taste for rabbit.  

Myxy long gone. Do you still not eat eggs because of Salmonella, Beef for CJd, Pork for Swine Fever. Avian Flu last winter  etc.etc.These are long past problems.

I agree that myxomatosis has all but gone as there is a high degree of immunity among the wild population. I have not personally cooked rabbit for over 30 years as it is not readily available locally. 

The effects of myxomatosis I believe are still there with regard to public perception towards diet. 

I have never avoided the other available products

I will eat captive bred and raised 'game' but am not an advocate of wild game shot in the outdoor wild environments. This indescriminate spread of toxic lead across many wlldlife areas is detrimentally effecting the health of and killing more birds and animals than are being cleanly shot. This should, in my opinion, be stopped immediately.

Interestingly, or sadly maybe, we hear today that lamb and mutton has fallen out of favour with the British palate much like rabbit did in he 50s and 60s. The farmers raising 'sheep meat' really are suffering with market demand and the future is looking bleak, or should that be bleat! Apparently we Brits just don't enjoy lamb like we used to!

I think the bigger issue is that it is sooo expensive!

Some  of  the  shooting  brigade, but  by  no  means  all,  have  fought  the  imposition  of  "Non  Lead"  shot  all  the  way,  even  tho'  it  is permitted  in  certain  areas  and  on  certain  targets.

However  even  if  the  use  of  lead  was  totally  banned  today,  the  amount  of  lead  already  lying  out  there  would  still  cause  many  slow  deaths  in  wildlife.