Coyote Pelt

[turpin]

Find the taxi-man. Make sure he understands what you intend to use it for so he uses extra care to preserve the face in skinning and tanning. Yes, you can get a pelt online at a reasonable price, but unless you can inspect it you take pot luck on what the face looks like.

[Pleater]

Faced with a dead coyote I would probably have a go at skinning it, unless it was unhealthy, scabby looking or otherwise looking dangerous. I'd probably get a couple of pairs of gloves, some thin surgical ones and heavier working waterproof ones, and maybe a face mask and disposable overall. I'll tackle most things but there is no sense taking stupid and easily avoidable risks.

I would aim to remove all the main body and upper parts of the legs, but only after giving it a good hose down, or even a brief bath, and letting it drip and cool - most surface parasites seem to leave things that have died so leave a container underneath to catch - and hopefully contain and drown anything washed off or taking a leap off the corpse.

I'd hang it up, (though I'd have to use a pulley and rope first to lift that weight but second to minimise contact) hose off, leave to drip, dispose of first drippings, hose down again with particular care to wash over the head and inside the mouth at low water pressure - that is -

AT LOW WATER PRESSURE - note the emphasis

You don't want to be creating a toxic aerosol to breath in or a spray to wet your skin.

To peel it, I'd take it down onto a bench or the floor, so it was not stretched out in its skin, lay it on its back and pinch up and make a small snip with sharp scissors in the middle of the belly, just through the skin. Lift the skin up away from the internal covering of the gut (which you will regret puncturing) and cut from the first incision towards the throat keeping to the mid line of the body, then cut down towards the back end. Cut around each side of the genitals and anus then pull the skin a little way up the tail without cutting the tube of skin, and chop through the bone of the base of the tail.

Now pull the tail towards the head to loosen the skin on top of the hip girdle and loosen the skin around the top of the legs so the inside is sliding out of the skin backwards. Push the legs so they fold up at the joints and keep pulling the skin forwards and away from the underneath. If you need to cut through tissue connecting the skin to the carcase fold the skin back and slide the knife in away from the skin, cut through the connecting strands ALWAYS away NEVER towards either its skin or your own.

Once you get the skin tube off the upper part of the leg pull it off inside out down to the thin part of the leg - then cut through the flesh and bone leaving the paw inside the skin. Once you have the hind legs out strip off the skin up to the neck and cut through the neck of the carcase, then pull out the front legs and cut off the paws at the wrist, leaving them inside the skin.

It is now possible to throw away the majority of the animal, and I'd sprinkle salt on the inside of the skin and put quite a lot in the mouth after removing the tongue - assuming that is not wanted.

The inside layer of the skin will be fatty and probably have a few veins, and it is removed when the skin is cleaned, but it can get a bit manky if there is a delay between skinning and cleaning. The salt will help preserve it. It might take some time for the fur to dry completly, so hanging it up in a dry place for a day or so, rather than packing it up straight away would be sensible.

It might take some persuasion to peel off the skin from something getting slipperier by the minute - it might help to put a slip knot of strong rope around the haunches once they are stripped off and anchor them so you can pull at the skin more easily. The amount of cutting of connecting tissue and the amount it will give to persuasion depends on the animal and how strong your hands are.

[kiltedsawyer]

wow, thank you, I'll let you know how it turns out!