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Drive to Burning Man. Hit a badger on the road on the Pyramid Lake Paiute Reservation.
It ran in front of us so fast I didn't know whether to turn left or right. I just yelled really loud and woke Star up. I didn't turn at all. we ran right over it. We pulled over and stopped. I thought the animal would be a mess, but it looked great. We put it in the back of the truck and kept going.
This is the first part of the Badger Trilogy, "Skinning".
It continues with "Badger Stew"
and will finish with "Tan a Badger Hide".
It ran in front of us so fast I didn't know whether to turn left or right. I just yelled really loud and woke Star up. I didn't turn at all. we ran right over it. We pulled over and stopped. I thought the animal would be a mess, but it looked great. We put it in the back of the truck and kept going.
This is the first part of the Badger Trilogy, "Skinning".
It continues with "Badger Stew"
and will finish with "Tan a Badger Hide".
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Signing UpStep 1Delight the Authorities with a Dead Badger
We joined the line of cars slowly creeping into Black Rock City. A drunk fratboy was walking down the line of cars, asking "Can I hide in your truck?". He wanted to get in without paying for a ticket. Probably it wouldn't work, since he was in clear view of the greeters.
When we got to the front of the line the greeters gave us the welcome, and took a quick look to see if we were smuggling fratboys. "Naked Bob", our greeter, was thrilled about our dead badger. He called over to another greeter. "Hey I think I found something, come tell me what you think." She came over and was delighted to find a dead badger instead of a drunk fratboy. The joy spread to the adjoining vehicles. When we pulled over inside the gates to stretch our legs, people stopped to see the badger.
It was truly a beautiful animal.
When we got to the front of the line the greeters gave us the welcome, and took a quick look to see if we were smuggling fratboys. "Naked Bob", our greeter, was thrilled about our dead badger. He called over to another greeter. "Hey I think I found something, come tell me what you think." She came over and was delighted to find a dead badger instead of a drunk fratboy. The joy spread to the adjoining vehicles. When we pulled over inside the gates to stretch our legs, people stopped to see the badger.
It was truly a beautiful animal.
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I laughed out loud. I've heard that vegetarianism is no longer valid on the playa, and even the most hard core vegans will eat bacon.
The pictures are educational. An instructable isn't very instructive without pictures.
It is in no way whatsoever 'cruel' to skin and utilize a DEAD animal. It's dead. Cruel would be to hit it and not even stop to check if it was still half alive. Cruel is skinning snakes alive for the amusement of restaurant-goers. Go complain about that, instead of people making the best of an unfortunate situation.
(BTW that is a very handsome badger! We don't have them in NZ so I've never really seen one before.)
To the Author/s: kudos for using the grand beast, and not wasting it. Hope the meat was good! What are your plans for its' fur?
who cares!!! the dude didn't get rabies! lets leave it at that!
I in any position of authority on this one, I would strongly, strongly recommend that any people who came into contact with the badger, or consumed any part of it, be started on post-exposure treatment immediately.
This is not being "overly cautious." Badgers are carnivores, and tend to be exposed to rabies much more often than other animals. Other more common (and non carnivorous) animals that are highly dangerous: Raccoons, Skunks, Bats, etc. Bats are particularly bad, as they remain infective much longer than most mammals. Some never die from it. There are some colonies that are estimated to be as much as 85% infected.
Yes, they're probably safe, but as Nevada (home of the Burning Man) has one of the highest rates of rabies in the U.S. (since 1926) I don't think I would even CONSIDER messing with an animal I just watched dart out into the road. For all they know, it was chasing an imaginary rabbit, or was very angry at a tree. Eating an animal that darted into the road without first having had a chance to properly observe it (when hunting, for example) is nothing but playing Russian Roulette, only instead of instant death, you get agony and slow on-and-off insanity over the span of a week.
In April of '04, 7 people died in China from rabies due to badger bites. Rabies is a horrible, horrible way to go, first losing control of your muscles, then slowly losing your mind, becoming insane while your consciousness still is fully awake. When in military veterinary school, I had to watch a video from the 60's of a young child dying of rabies. He was given a glass of water and tried to be a "good boy" and drink it (while his arms flailed uncontrollably) but his brain had already hit the hydrophobia stage and would cause him to gag and choke on anything liquid. Imagine being deathly afraid of water, and still knowing there's no reason for you to be. Being insanely angry but also knowing it's just the virus that's killing you that makes you this way. People have been interviewed as they died of rabies, and believe me, that's no way for any living thing to die. Imagine spouts of insanity that last longer and longer as you die, then spouts of completely clarity, remembering everything you did and said while you were insane, and knowing that each moment of clarity will be shorter than the last.
I say again, the symptoms can be as simple as a sore back, or a headache, and once you're symptomatic, look forward to an agonizing death within the next 7 days. Period. You don't survive rabies.
Currently, there is only one person (Jeanna Giese) in history that has ever "survived" rabies. This was because her doctor invented the "Milwaukee Protocol" on the fly, wherein the patient is induced into a severe, very deep, very dangerous coma in the hopes that the body will produce antibodies before it dies.
Today, Jeanna is still relearning everything she knew from childhood, including how to talk, walk, etc.
I've been out of the Army for 10 years now, and I still get my rabies titer checked, and booster shots when necessary. As an avid camper and outdoorsman, there's little out there as dangerous as a disease that can take up to 6 months to show any symptoms, and once it does, you die no matter what.
*phew* *steps off his soap box*
Sorry to hijack like this, but I'm just utterly dumbfounded that someone would do this, much less recommend anyone else do it.