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brudgers

Road-kill can provide meat year round.

Not as romantic a feel good story of course.

But a dead deer is still dead dear.

YMMV.

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One time I happened across a suspiciously roadkilled moose. I was there before the flies were. I would have had no qualms about eating it but alas I was driving a rental and while I could have butchered it with a box cutter I would have had nothing to do with the meat.

FYI the reason you don't generally want to eat roadkill is that the trauma and blood clotting does something bad to the meat quality. I don't know the exact details but that's what I've been told.

Last year we saw a roadkill buck on the side of the road with a huge rack when my wife was driving me to work. My wife contacted a hunter friend, by the time they got it somebody had cut off the rack, but we got the rest of the carcass and butchered it. See

https://bsky.app/profile/up-8.bsky.social/post/3lckxwbxfm22r

you can have meat ruined in the area impacted (by a car or bullet) but we had very little of that and got a huge amount of very good meat that we ate for months. (Our guess is that the value of the meat in a roadkill is on the order of fixing the damage from an accident)

Inevitably, the chunk of meat that was impacted by the vehicle is less deer meat and more deer jello. The less battered parts of the deer can be fine, though.

Make sure you contact the DNR before doing this. They generally will give you are permit for the deer, but they do a little paperwork to make sure you are not doing illegal hunting. (this is an unlikely problem: hitting a deer with a car does more damage than the deer is worth - but they still need to verify just to ensure this doesn't become a problem)

In the US, laws vary by state. For example Texas prohibits the removal of roadkill and roadside deer carcasses abound in the Hill Country.

Eating road kill has always been said in jest where I'm from for the obvious reasons. I had never really heard of it being said any where approaching serious until RFK Jr. Now, it seems to be fashionable.

I had never really head of it being said any where approaching serious

Everyone does not live like you. People “where you are from” eat roadkill. Some with a roadkill license. Some without.

https://www.wideopencountry.com/all-the-states-where-you-can...

I know several people in my local hunting community who eat roadkill. I'd be a bit wary of it myself unless I saw the animal get hit, but it's definitely not just a joke to some folks, with or without RFK Jr.

It's different if you hit the animal vs just coming across the carcass. That detail is, probably conveniently, left out of most tales of roadkill stories.

I would not say fashionable so much as practical. In rural parts, venison is a normal thing. If you suddenly happen across a $20 on the ground, you pick it up and put it in your pocket.

Several years ago, a friend of mine hit a deer with her car. Deer was still alive. She managed to flag down a cop who executed it on the side of the road. Cop then asked if she wanted the carcass, otherwise he was going to take it home for himself.

Reminds me of the time that a dairy cow got loose in Dryden NY and was menacing the high school and a police officer, showing a lack of good judgement, emptied his pistol into it with insufficient effect and had to call a farmer to finish the animal off with a shotgun.

I had a neighbor whose dogs had cornered an opossum in the back yard. The small town police officer that responded decided that since no animal control could respond, he would take care of it. He fired from < 10' away 3 times to put this small animal down. It was then that I became aware of just how untrained with weapons cops really are.

I wouldn't say mainstream trendy, but I know several people who make six figures but wont turn down fresh roadkill deer.

I wouldn't either.

RFK has entered the chat.

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