Cook the hell out of them and there will be zero chance of catching anything from eating the meat. I usually toss them in a big ceramic deal with a bunch of beer, onions, pepper, and a few other things, and let it cook at fairly low heat for most of a day.
I bet the gloves are a good idea for cleaning them, but nobody I know does this and none of them have ever caught the plague. We mostly use the slice-and-yank method, though, and it may be hard to get a solid grip on the hide when you go to rip their skin off while wearing rubber gloves.
Besides that, I can clearly see what would happen the first time I broke out the rubber gloves to clean rabbits...
"Look! Bill's afraid of a little rabbit blood!"
Everyone would then laugh and try to smear blood or fling guts on me. Things like this are the downside of hunting with coonasses.
