Mark Holness is shooting rabbits, mincing them up and selling them in small bags to pet owners, to help make ends meet.
The Aussie, who drove road trains back home, moved to Arrowtown last March to look after his sprightly 81-year-old artist mother, Juanita, who owns a former crib right in the heart of the village.
Holness started out shooting rabbits just for the pair’s two dogs but the word got around, and he’s now literally a cottage industry.
He dispatches rabbits as humanely as possible with a single head shot from his powerful airrifle.
In his mum’s kitchen, he skins and guts the rabbits and minces them — bones and all — and packages them for the freezer.
While it’s cost him money to set up, he believes at $3 for 200g he’s probably selling the pet food a little cheap.
But the return on each rabbit, considered by most a pest with no value, is about $15.
Holness says he’s got no shortage of customers, who find him via Facebook, and he has just embarked on a side-line — drying the ears and feet as dog chews.
He’s approached the Ministry for Primary Industries to check he’s is following the ‘wild animals for petfood’ rules correctly.
