Montana recently made moves to legalize eating roadkill. Nicola Twilley consults the rest of the country’s laws:
Florida is the most permissive: according to Marketplace, “If you hit a deer, it’s legal to take it home and do whatever you want with it. You don’t need permission.” Most states with roadkill bills do require drivers to notify the authorities; for example, in New York state, residents can salvage deer, moose, or bear from the highway, but only if the collision is reported and deemed to be accidental. A handful of other states expressly forbid the collection and consumption of roadkill, including, somewhat counter-intuitively, that well-known home of guns, “freedom,” and feral hogs, Texas. In some rural counties in Alaska and Vermont, you can even add your name and number to roadkill phone trees: the state game warden will give you a call when there’s a fresh moose or deer “that’s not too smooshed.”
Update from a New Zealand reader, who identifies the above bird and offers advice on eating roadkill:
The bird in your post a Pukeko, a prolific New Zealand waterfowl species that gets run over often. It does not get run over in Montana though.
Roadkill is ok to eat, but it depends on where it is hit. Rabbits and hares that get run over by a wheel are too badly bruised, but those that stick their heads up and get hit by the underside of the grill are fine. Birds can be good, but preferably if they come off the windscreen obliquely, rather than getting hit by the grill. Pheasants usually hit the windscreen and are not too badly damaged.
Pukeko is not regarded as a table bird in New Zealand, as it has suffered from the adage boil it with a rock and throw the pukeko out and eat the rock. It is ok to eat but you don’t get much meat, and it is tough if it is not allowed to settle in a fridge for about two weeks to allow the proteins to break down.
(Photo by Lee Taylor)
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