Let's say your in a situation where you need to hunt small animals and birds for food.... I know to discard a cotton tail rabbit if it has yellow spots on the liver, yet I don't know why? And, are there other animals that the problem is also true of such as... Skunks, rats, squirrels,birds of any kind. I have a wrist rocket in my bug out truck kit, and would like to know why no rabbits with yellow spots on the liver and some rules of thumb if I'm desperate enough to want to eat a crow, or weasel? Thanks in advance, love this sight.

Yellow or white spots on the liver usually mean that the rabbit has gotten Tularemia from fleas or ticks and it can be transmitted to man through open wounds.

If you notice the rabbit is lethargic prior to taking it, the animal could have contracted Tularemia or any other number of diseases. After contracting Tularemia, a rabbit will only live a few days, so chances are that if the rabbit was doing its usual rabbity thing, it will be alright.

A general rule of thumb is that lethargic animals or animals that somehow act other than they normally would should be avoided.

Another general rule is that animals which are found dead should not be consumed. I've seen both Les Stroud and Bear Grylls ignore this, so YMMV.

Boy howdy, have I got a PDF for you Is This Safe to Eat? part of Disease Emergence and Resurgence: The Wildlife-Human Connection found after seeing your question and googling for "wild game liver spots"

Based on my own personal experience, you'd have to be PRETTY DARN HUNGRY to eat seagull. I suspect that the best way to cook seagull is to wrap it in a cowflop and roast it over an open fire. It won't help the seagull, but it might make the cowflop somewhat more palatable.
On a serious note, I'll echo the comment that game that does not act normal should be passed up; forget about skunk, and don't burn up more calories catching the gme than what you'd gain by eating it.

edited for clarity.

A lot of our ancestors got by by using the 'big-black-stew-pot'. Anything and everything that might be eaten was skinned, cleaned, and dropped into the pot. The pot was left at a low simmer during the day and covered and allowed to cool at night. In winter, when you have a fire anyway, it might cook slowly 24/7. Over a banked fire at night.

In good times it was small animals like squirrels and rabbit and the occasional cut of beef or venison. In normal hard times it included any small animals. Mice, small birds, lizards. When things got desperate bones and skins went in. Bones were saved and reused until they disintegrated.

I suspect that even a rotting, and diseased rabbit would be safe to eat if cooked long enough.

If you insist on eating your meat rare or letting the cut do little more than 'kiss-the-pan' I would think your going to have to be more selective. Stewed for a day is safer.

Rabbits and hares abound where I am, and I was taught by my grandfather that they were safe to eat in the dead of winter. I never knew why, but I followed his advice and never had a problem. I now know that many rabbits carry tularemia which is a fatal bacterial disease of rabbits that is transmittible to man. Diseased rabbits die in early in the cold weather and fleas and ticks are gone. The remaining rabbits are good. If I were in a survival situation in summer or fall, I would go for birds, fish, snakes, and amphibians. In winter, I would chop and stew any live red meat I could get as Art_in_FL suggests in his post above.

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Another general rule is that animals which are found dead should not be consumed. I've seen both Les Stroud and Bear Grylls ignore this, so YMMV. [/quote]

Grylls probably just does the 'munch and heave' routine back at the Waldorf, but Les is in a realistic survival situation. If you read some of his interviews, he has paid a heavy price for some of his consumption choices.
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What kind of situation would have us (most of us) resorting to eating squirrels etc ?? If we're stuck out on open ground (for an example) and run out of food, we're going to be out of oher things too, like water and or shelter.

Correct me if I'm wrong folks.

I don't think one is necessarily connected to the other. Putting aside the wee small technicality of how you'd actually find/scavenge/hunt/snare these animals, when I first read this topic, the James Kim family tragedy flashed through my mind. They had the river next to them for water, the car for shelter, (I forget if they had fire besides burning their tires) but just no food. Any sustenance would've helped them.

Practice may be available. California, for example, has a small number of no limit, no season critters such as english sparrows. carp, and wild pigs [check the regs near you].

Small critters once cleaned can be cooked whole or dried/ ground / powdered and cooked into "stoup." A few wild edible plants could help palatability.

I think the lowest tech allowed harvest method is by bow.

Biggest issue for me is finding clean environments from which to legally practice such harvests.

Each prey has its own habits, diseases, etcetera that the reponsible harvester should learn. The internet should provide what you need.