Butchering – Skinning – Gripper or hook type
Reexamination Certificate
2000-05-26
2001-10-02
Little, Willis (Department: 3643)
Butchering
Skinning
Gripper or hook type
C452S125000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06296559
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates, in general, to an apparatus for removing the skin from an animal carcass. In particular, the invention relates to a transportable winch operated apparatus for removing the skin from the carcass of an animal in the wild after the animal is killed. More particularly the invention relates to a transportable winch operated apparatus that has adjustable components to accommodate various sizes of carcasses that are to be skinned.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
If an animal is slaughtered in a commercial slaughtering house the skinning process involves either removing the skin intact or the animal is slaughtered and the skin is then removed. When a hunter kills an animal during the hunting season, he must carry or drag the animal to a proper slaughtering place or slaughter the animal in the wild where the animal was felled. Transporting the felled animal to a slaughtering house can be a time consuming and strenuous operation.
Generally, the outside or fur layer of the skin is not allowed to have contact with the inside flesh layer, or meat of the animal. If the outside skin of the animal comes in contact with the meat portion of the animal, contamination of the meat may result due to parasites or other contaminates found on animals in the wild.
In the past, attempts have been made to provide the hunter with an apparatus to remove the skin from an animal felled in the wild. One such attempt is U.S. Pat. No. 5,211,601 issued to Cope on May 18, 1993. The Cope patent discloses placing the carcass of the animal in proximity to a footed pole or member that has an overhead winch. A predetermined portion of the carcass's skin is secured to the footed portion of the apparatus and the hind legs are attached to the winch. The winch is activated and the skin is removed from the animal. While this apparatus may skin selective sizes of animals, it does not lend itself to skinning all types and sizes of animals. For example, if an animal's girth is less than the distance between the footed portions of the apparatus, a larger portion of the skin has to be peeled from the meat to reach and be secured to the footed portion. This pre-skinning adds to the risk of contaminating the meat of the animal. Portability of such an apparatus is limited. If the apparatus is disassembled, the subassemblies of the apparatus must be retained or bundled in some manner to be transported in bulk. The Cope patent subassemblies do not provide any structure to retain the apparatus after disassembly or means for easily transporting the apparatus once disassembled.
Another attempt to provide the hunter with an apparatus to remove the skin from an animal felled in the wild is U.S. Pat. No. 5,336,124 issued to Garside on Aug. 9, 1994. The Garside patent discloses a skinning apparatus that secures the antlers of the carcass to a tree and a portion of the skin of the animal is secured to a vehicle via a skin removal tool. The vehicle then moves in a direction opposite from the tree and the skin is removed from the carcass.
The skin removal tool is positioned at the nap or base of the neck of the carcass with a selected portion of the carcass's skin wedged in one end of the tool. The other end of the tool is secured to the vehicle. Tension is applied to the skin removal tool by the forward movement of the vehicle. The more tension applied by the vehicle the tighter the tool grasps the selected portion of skin. The skin removal tool has pointed or sharpened portions that engage the skin. Presumably, this is to hold the skin in place while the vehicle applies tension to the skin removal tool. This feature of the Garside patent tears or rips the skin in such a way as to cause the skin removal tool to lose its grip on the skin when tension is applied.
It would be desirable to have a winch operated transportable carcass skinning apparatus. The carcass skinning apparatus could be disassembled and stored as a unitary structure i.e., each subassembly would clamp or be retained by an associated subassembly structure. The unitary structure would then be transported to a slaughtering site or location and then be quickly reassembled for skinning the carcass. The carcass skinning apparatus would be selectively adjusted to the size of the animal to be skinned.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Slaughtering an animal in the wild presents inordinate difficulties to a hunter. Once the animal is felled, it must be transported to a slaughtering site or the slaughtering site has to be brought to the felled animal. Skinning or flaying the animal in the wild presents sanitary concerns regarding the contact of the meat with the outer skin or fur of the animal and other environmental hazards such as organic contamination from the surrounding slaughtering site. Hunters of game animals, to avoid sanitary and environmental hazards, generally transport the felled animal carcass to a professional slaughtering facility. Transporting the felled animal to a slaughtering site can be taxing for the individual hunter. Often the felled animal retreats to the brush or to a heavily wooded area to die. Extracting the felled animal from the brush and then physically dragging or carrying the animal to the slaughtering site is arduous.
The present invention provides the hunter or any user with a transportable winch operated carcass skinning apparatus. The present invention may, if desired, be transported to the felled animal or to a central slaughtering site in proximity to the felled animal. The transportable carcass skinning apparatus has a substantially rectangular platform to which a pair of sectional tubular stanchions is detachably secured thereto. A crossmember, a pair of adjustable carcass leg retaining members, a pair of adjustable carcass skin retaining members, and a carrying pouch are also detachably secured to the platform. The stanchions, the adjustable carcass leg retaining members, the adjustable carcass skin retaining members, and the pouch are detachably secured to the platform in such a way as to enable the user to transport the present invention as a unitary structure. A plurality of skids may, if desired, be mounted to the platform along with a gripping mechanism to assist the user in transporting the present invention in the wild.
Once the present invention is transported to the slaughtering site, the sectional tubular stanchions are detached from the platform and assembled end to end. The cross-member is detached from the platform and connected to one end of the pair of assembled stanchions. The cross-member and pair of stanchions are raised perpendicular to the platform. The other ends of the assembled pair of stanchions are detachably secured to the platform via a pair of oppositely spaced apart tubular stub members connected to the platform's top surface. The cross-member has an outwardly extending protuberance for the mounting of the winch. Once the winch is mounted to the cross-member's protuberance the present invention may function as a skinning site for felled animals.
The felled animal is positioned between the stanchions with its hindquarters in proximity to the tubular stub members. The pair of adjustable carcass leg retaining members are removed from the pouch and are secured to the animal's leg's i.e., above the animal's knee or knuckle joint and the winch's elongated carcass lifting member. The pair of adjustable carcass skin retaining members are removed from the pouch and secured to the animal's skin and to the hooks provided on the tubular stub members. The winch is energized by a battery and the animal carcass is raised parallel to the upright stanchions. The upward motion of the animal carcass with its skin in a stationary position pulls the skin from the animal.
When taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the appended claims, other features and advantages of the present invention become apparent upon reading the following detailed description of embodiments of the invention.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3626550 (1971-12-01), Troy
pate
Little Willis
McComas Richard C.
Patent Focus, Inc.
LandOfFree
Method and apparatus for skinning an animal carcass does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Method and apparatus for skinning an animal carcass, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Method and apparatus for skinning an animal carcass will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2591702