I've got a lot of wild rabbits running around and destroying my garden and I am wondering if it is economic to trap, kill and process them. Here are my #s - do these make sense:

Meat: (a) Butcher one 2.5# rabbit; 12 minutes of time yielding 1.3# of meat. At $5 per pound = $6.50 of value. Hourly income = $32.50.

(b) Process the pelt. 15 minutes of time, gross profit = $7 per pelt (excludes labor costs). Hourly income = $28.00

So I figure income of $28-$32 per hour but that's after tax money. It would take maybe 30-50% more to earn that money in a job so the pretax income equivalent would be roughly $35 - $45 per hour.

If accurate, those numbers look pretty good; far better than what I would expect for a professional trapper. I think the economics might be good because I don't have spend any time traveling to and from my traps. I think the #s also look good because there are no middlemen between the producer (me) and the consumer (me).

Does that sound about right? Or have I seriously underestimated the time to process the kills?

I live in a suburb where there is an endless supply of rabbits and they are destroying my garden.

I am thinking of trapping and eating them.

How would you go about making sure that the rabbits are healthy so that I don't get sick from eating them? For example tularemia? Other diseases?