
Eating Roadkill Is Illegal in California. But That May Change - howard941
https://www.kqed.org/science/1941435/eating-roadkill-is-illegal-in-california-but-maybe-not-for-long
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chayesfss
I’ve eaten a lot of roadkill. Most often a lot of the meat is tainted and
can’t be used. You can’t really see that driving from your car thinking why
doesn’t someone just eat that but you might just get a single back strap from
road kill, or just a breast from a turkey. Again, it’s not ever too easy and
you’ve got to be careful so who’s going to do that for a family? On top of all
that you’ve got to get grinders, vacuum dealers and bone saws, all that being
said I’ve got a rear shank I’ll be cooking this weekend.

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TimTheTinker
> By allowing salvagers to apply for a permit after collecting the animal, the
> law could give the poachers a ready-made excuse when caught with a
> contraband carcass: “I swear, officer, I just found it on the side of the
> road!”

The above is cited as a potential unintended consequence of legalizing
roadkill salvage. Does anyone have a take on how likely that consequence would
be to happen?

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burk96
Growing up I had a family friend who was a park ranger in a popular hunting
area (not California fwiw). The laws protecting wildlife from poachers are
really strong and rangers take them very seriously. As a result, catching a
poacher can often be a messy scenario. If it doesn't turn violent, you can bet
the poachers will try everything to get out of catching the case. I don't
think it's unreasonable that poachers would try to protect themselves with
this defense.

That said, I don't think that potential wiggle room poachers may try to
exploit should be reason to keep salvaging illegal. The only time I have ever
heard of a poacher making that excuse was in an askreddit thread (yeah I know
take it with a grain of salt) about LEOs getting guns pulled on them. In that
story the ranger could clearly tell the animal had been shot, not hit with a
vehicle, and I would imagine in many other cases a ranger would be able to
tell the difference too.

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merpnderp
I mean if they shot a deer, then ran it over with their car, it would look
like a deer that was shot then ran over. You'd have to mangle the animal
severely to make a rifle/bow wound difficult to find.

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dragonwriter
> I mean if they shot a deer, then ran it over with their car, it would look
> like a deer that was shot then ran over.

While no doubt an actual autopsy will often distinguish "run over and then
shot" from "shot and then run over" (note that the bill allows "dispatching"
animals that are wounded but not killed on the road, so there being a clear
bullet/arrow/etc. wound, even if it can be established that it came from the
person who collected it and not previously and non-fatally, is not
determinative of a violation), its considerably _costlier_ to distinguish
violations from permitted conduct, which makes enforcement harder and promotes
violations.

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masonic

      autopsy
    

necropsy

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modzu
"While roadkill cuisine may not yet be mainstream" (like it will be someday)

"stereotyped hillbilly eating roadkill has been replaced by an environmentally
and food conscientious middle-class urbanite"

lol am i reading the onion?

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fatnoah
I grew up in NH. They have a different approach:
[https://www.fosters.com/news/20181006/roadkill-for-dinner-
pr...](https://www.fosters.com/news/20181006/roadkill-for-dinner-programs-
salvage-meat)

~~~
thrower123
In Maine people used to seek out the local wardens to get on the list for
moose hits because they liked moosemeat.

It's pretty sickening driving south, where deer populations are so thick and
there aren't the winters and hunters to check them, to see so many roadkills
in the ditch just rotting and going to waste.

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aosmith
Why is this illegal to begin with? I grew up in Michigan and it was very
common to call a charity to collect the meat after hitting a deer.

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HeyLaughingBoy
In Minnesota they take them to the International Wolf Center to feed the pack
(if within 150 miles I believe).

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Apocryphon
Why not decompose the carcass if you're doing this for ecological reasons?
Encouraging consumption just makes it seem like a cruel not-solution for the
poverty problems in this state.

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anon1m0us
In areas where people are hungry, hitting a deer and being forced to leave it
to rot on the side of the road is a real tragedy.

One deer is enough meat for a whole family for many months.

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mtnGoat
last time i did the math an average deer offsets something like $425 worth of
beef, and that was a conservative estimate. i know road kill tends to have a
bit of damage, depending on the impact area, in any case thats a lot of meat
to waste. Elk, are even more meat too.

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aosmith
The hardest part is the timing, it really needs to be a collaborative effort
between motorists, an agency (like) CHP, and a number of charities that are
able to collect the animal quickly.

