Processing animals for consumption by exotic and wild felines

By Lynn Culver, June 2007   (Also see shorter PDF version)

WARNING!

Hyperlinked words in the text below lead to very graphic and bloody pictures of butchered animals. If you don' t like seeing dead gutted animals or if you get offended easily, DO NOT CLICK on the hyperlinked words leading to these graphic images. Enter at your own risk! 

Wild felines kill and eat other animals. They have evolved to digest skin, fur, bones, muscle and organs. There is some nutritional value in every part of an animal. In fact, when consumed in entirety, they form a balanced diet.

Predators usually eat animals smaller then themselves though not always. But when they do eat the smaller meals, they consume them usually skin, bone and all. We have all seen enough television nature shows of lions feasting on wildebeest to know they can put a hurt on the big bones of a big herbivore, and what they don’t consume, the hyenas finish off.

In captivity we often feed commercial, processed meat, usually poultry, beef or horse. In the case of beef or horse, it is clear muscle meat lacking the bones, skin and even organs so it must be supplemented with vitamins and calcium to make it nutritionally complete.

I feed a combination of commercially prepared chicken leg quarters and I also butcher cows, calves, horse, deer, beaver, squirrel, rabbit and chickens for my cougars and smaller cats. This provides variety to their diets as well as roughage.

For those who have never butchered cows or horses but are interested in trying but don’t know where to start I offer a brief tutorial. First off, I suggest you start small and work up. A newborn calf or deer is a good basic start. For any animal, I remove stomach and intestines because they are definitely a source of e-coli bacteria and potentially parasites. Additionally, it is the stomach and intestines that cause meat to spoil, so the sooner it is removed, the better for the meat. For ease of processing, a mammal of this size needs to be hung. In commercial processing plants, cows are hung by a back leg, but I have trained myself to process an animal hanging from the neck and so I can only give guidance this way.

Before you butcher, you need to understand why the animal perished and when it perished and make a decision concerning wholesomeness. Many times a bull calf is too large for the birth canal and gets stuck and smothers and is born dead. This is suitable for feeding. And a deer that is hit by a car and dies of shock or internal bleeding or broken bones is also suitable as long as it is still fresh. Freshness is a matter of temperature – in summer animals spoil much quicker then winter. Freshness can be determined by the presence of any off smells, appearance of green in the belly area, or stomach bloat caused by the contents of the stomach and intestines heating up and composting creating gas which then backs up into the bloodstream and contaminates the meat. The stomach is a big compost heap and so removal shortly after death is critical to prolonging wholesomeness for feeding.

We do all our butchering using sharp knives and have a sharpener on hand and use it frequently during the process. We do not use chainsaws or other mechanical means, just a knife and knowledge of anatomy.

First step is to eviscerate the animal, cut a slice up the center of the belly from groin to the rib cage and then slice perpendicular along the last rib bone to reveal the stomach and intestines. Next you must sever the liver from the diaphragm and this frees the stomach and intestines to fall out of the hole you have made. You will need to pull somewhat and cut the intestines free from the anus. You can then cut the liver from this and use it as food. Liver is an important nutritional package of iron and mix of B vitamins. The kidneys are usually embedded into the back and cushioned by a protective wad of fat. Cut them out for feeding as well.

Now, to skin or not to skin? For a newborn calf, I don’t bother, but I do for older cows. I start at the stomach area and begin to use my knife to separate the skin from the stomach muscle and pull at the skin with one hand as I swipe my knife along the meat with the other. I usually skin the entire middle section, including the top of the front legs in one piece, pulling as I go and making a cut at the base of the neck to define the area I am skinning. I deal with the neck area separately later.

Once skinned, I begin the processing. For a young calf or deer, I remove the legs whole, starting with the hind legs, and understanding that the leg is connected to the hip by a ball and socket. Slice around the groin and rotate the leg to get a feel for where the ball and socket is and aim your cut towards this area. There is a tendon that actually holds the ball in the socket and even though you cut around the socket, you have to maneuver your knife to reach this tendon attached to the top of the ball and sever it before the leg will be free.

The front legs are different. You have heard of a shoulder blade, that is a description of the bone, it is flat and blade like and there is no ball and socket. So just cut under the armpit and pull the leg back to facilitate more cutting and you can cut all around the blade and remove it from the body.

A slice of the knife down both the right and left of the spine and then another several inches away to form a long trough will reveal the prime rib. That’s real tender meat and a great treat. Inside the body cavity along the lower spine is another pocket of meat, the tenderloin and it is worth removing as well. This leaves the body and the neck and head. Slice around the neck where it meets the body and if you can run your knife into the spine you can sever the cord and separate the vertebra with a knife. It’s kind of a skill, and if you don’t succeed, you may then need to resort to an ax.

I also sever the body just above the hip and pelvis area, I slice through as deep as I can with a knife from the backside and then from the inside. Then I apply pressure to crack the spine and help me finish severing between the vertebrae joints with the knife.

Now while the chest cavity is on a level surface, like your truck bed or wheelbarrow, you can slice through the diaphragm, which is a flap that separates the chest cavity from the stomach cavity, and pull out the lungs and heart. Or leave them inside the chest and feed as is, your choice. I don’t feed lungs, they don’t really feel like food to me, they are more like a sponge and I discard them with the stomach and intestines.

These instructions will leave you with four legs, a neck with head, a pelvis and a chest cavity, and a bag of tenderloin, prime rib, liver, kidney and heart. This feeds seven cougars one meal. When feeding young calves, there will only be lower parts of the legs to dispose of or pieces of the skull and lower jaw. An adult cougar, or larger feline species, will make short work of these size bones.

If you managed to accomplish this, then you might move onto older cows or horses. It’s the same process, though with adult animals you spend considerable time cutting hunks of meat off the animal. We just use a knife and a hay hook to pull the meat way from the animal as we are cutting. We have several large pans that we fill up and then periodically we pause and bag the meat into Wall Mart bags for freezing.

When considering larger animals, here are a few pointers. What was the cause of death? Not all animals are suitable as animal grade protein. Some are old and skinny and will be a big disappointment. The single best indicator of the quality of meat to bone ratio will be the appearance of the back and spine. A good cow or horse has a flat back; you cannot see the spine. If there is a ridge or any sign of an indent along the spine, the animal is not optimum and the meat to bone ratio will be less then ideal. This is important, because you want results for your work and a skinny cow is still hundreds of pounds gut contents, skin and bones to dispose of and can offer a surprisingly small amount of usable meat.

Ask the farmer questions. Buy yourself a Merck Veterinary Manual and use it to look up cattle illnesses and problems. Call your vet and consult with him. When it doubt, don’t use it. Here are a few safe and suitable reasons for death that you can accept. Lighting strikes, hip and leg injuries from breeding or other reasons, calcium deficiencies (enclampsia) after birthing that leave the momma cow paralyzed, uterine prolapse, or pinched nerves from delivery that render the cow unable to stand, grass tetney, which can be caused by eating too much fescue in the spring, or acorn poisoning from eating acorns in the fall, hardware ingestion, which is usually hay bale strings or plastic bags that the cow eats and it wads up within their stomach and prevents digestion. With horses, most times it is either colic or foundering that brings the equine to us. Horses have far fewer problems giving birth, but over eating can cause either an immediate death from colic or irreversible injury from foundering.

What breed is the cow? Some breeds are better then others. What kind of farmer are you dealing with? Some cattle farms have better quality cows. We like a nice black Angus over anything else. Angus has high meat to bone ratio, and relatively small bones. The other extreme is a Holstein milk cow – very, very large animal, with very heavy bones. In between are Brahmas, which can be bony, or Brangus, an Angus/Brahma cross which are bigger than Angus and still very meaty. Herefords are a thick-skinned, hairy breed that is also big boned, and not my favorite. For sheer meat volume though, a Charlais or Limousine or Beefmaster are really rewarding, I’ll put up with the heavy bones to get that meat. There are plenty of mixed breed cows as well.

A word about horses; we don’t get as many offered to us, and I believe it is partly due to the emotional attachment to them as companions. I respect that; I don’t give my cats to taxidermists after they die either, I bury them whole. But when we are given a horse we do our best to honor the animal and ease the emotional pain of the owner. I tell them their horse will wake up a beautiful mountain lion and I thank them for helping us feed our cats. I am very grateful. Horses are, pound for pound, more meat then cows. They don’t have four stomachs full of grass weighing hundreds of pounds. Their necks and rumps are all muscle. Horse skin is much thinner then cow skin and horse meat is much more tender, even when the horse is two or even three decades old, it will be tender meat. Even without ever tasting horsemeat, I can understand why the Europeans eat horses.

Life is harsh and sometimes the most merciful thing a rancher can do is humanely destroy his stock. This is most apparent during birthing season. One does not realize how life threatening giving birth can be for a cow. Sometimes the cattleman will purchase a bull to breed with the herd that carries genetics too large for the cows. Developing bull calves will reach a size that is too big for the mother to safely deliver. Many times they lodge in the birth canal and die. Other times they pinch a nerve as they are delivered and paralyze the mother cow. Sometimes the mother cow gives birth to the calf and in the process it causes her to expel her uterus as well, called prolapse. When this happens sometimes the uterus can be cleaned and sewn back inside, but if it is not caught soon enough, or if it happens on a weekend when all the vets are off, the farmer usually shoots the animal.

The best place to shoot is the brain, and the best way to hit the brain is to draw an X from the eyes to the ears in your mind and aim for that spot. The brain cavity on a cow or horse is rather small, and high up. Aiming head on is the best approach. Wait until the animal is settled and not moving and then take quick aim with a pistol or riffle up close. A 22 hollow point will work, but a larger caliber bullet is a more sure bet. When aimed right, an adult animal will drop immediately and only take a few more breaths before the heart stops pumping. Fortunately the brain is not aware of anything. When there is no eye reflex upon touching the eyeball, you have hit the brain.

Ideally, when butchering large animals, I like to let them hang and cool before processing. This firms up the muscle meat and helps it freeze faster when it is bagged because it is already cool. In the summer, if possible I arrange with the farmer to destroy the animal later in the day so I can pick it up and eviscerate it towards sundown and allow it to hang overnight and then get up early the next morning and begin processing at daylight. In the winter, time of day is not so critical and if it is plenty cool, once the stomach and intestines are removed an animal can hang  for days if necessary, neither flies or spoilage is an issue.

What do you do with all the bones and waste? We compose intestines and stomachs and burn bones and skin. We live in the country and have plenty of firewood for fuel. The job is not finished until everything is disposed of, so it can take several hours to process and clean up after a “free” cow.

Lynn Culver is the president of the Feline Conservation Federation (FCF). She and her husband Bart are owner/operators of Natural Order Animal Husbandry Feline Conservation Center. Lynn has over two decades of experience in the husbandry of cougars, and currently breeds smaller species of cats and houses one of the largest colonies of Geoffrey's cat in the US. Lynn has served in the Feline Conservation Federation as Legislation Director, giving FCF input on state and federal laws and USDA regulations pertaining to exotic felines.

Copyright 2007 © Lynn Culver & REXANO

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