Last week a colleague and I found an injured deer along the roadside, it had been hit by a car and was crippled. Well we put it down, and then my colleague wanted the skin that wasn't damaged and I thought I would take the backleg's for dog meat. We discovered the deer's hip had been broken, and found no meat damage. I've had the meat in the fridge for a week in a linen bag, it smells nice and looks good enough for human consumption. The deer was a yearling and in good nick. Is the meat OK to eat? The animal was resting peacefully before we put him down and he looked alert.

I would have made it dog meat.

Johan

I'm sure the meat will be fine -- sounds like the deer didn't have enough time to become infected.

But then again my rule is that roadkill is OK to eat as long as you can get it off the road without a shovel...

jpb

[ 08-23-2003, 14:50: Message edited by: jpb ]

Hi,
What are the regulations where you live concerning roadkills? I know in many places one cannot take what you have hit yourself.

double post

Have you all ever gotten caught in that 60-second flood-control rule?

[ 08-23-2003, 17:45: Message edited by: HenryC470 ]

In West Virginia, you can eat your road kill. The legislature quietly passed the bill, and the governor ever so quietly allowed it to become law without signing it. Good enough, but that didn't stop Jay Leno from finding out about it.

My understanding of West Virginia law is that you are allowed to dress a road-killed animal for consumption and afterwards check it as "game". Maybe it's not classified as game, and there's a special road kill tag(?). I have not been through the process, but I work with a fellow who comes to work along a stretch of I-77 that is lousy with deer. He has several times found freshly killed deer on his way to work, turned around, taken a deer home to dress it, and come to work an hour late.

H. C.

[ 08-23-2003, 17:46: Message edited by: HenryC470 ]

I dunno about the legality, but based on your description the meat will be fine. I can't believe you didn't take the whole thing, or at least the backstraps.

Tennessee passed this same law, but the legislator or other factions made such a big deal out of it the intent was lost in National news stories about the law! Lots of meat available in TN with the explosion in population since the 70s.
Not as liberal as Alabama harvest regulations, but we can kill something like 12-13 plus any special seasons outside of bow, gun and muzzleloader seasons.
LouisB

HenryC470 wrote:

In West Virginia, you can eat your road kill. The legislature quietly passed the bill, and the governor ever so quietly allowed it to become law without signing it. Good enough, but that didn't stop Jay Leno from finding out about it.

[ 08-23-2003, 18:40: Message edited by: TCLouis ]

wish that were allowed here. Legally we can't even put the deer down without first notifying the game warden and then it is to his discretion weather to allow you to put it down, or wait till he gets there. Even after that it gets left in the bar ditch

In Michigan it's common for law enforcement officers to issue "deer kill permits" for road kills and people can take the meat. In some of the outer suburb areas I'm familiar with, it's fairly common to have people on a list that want to be called and will promptly respond to pick up the fresh carcass that haven't been mangled/squashed.

In Kansas, one call to the Highway Patrol or Dept. of Wildlife and Parks will get you an officer with a salvage tag. Once tagged, it's yours.

I just popped a nice fat cow elk last week that had been hit in the back end by a truck. Here in MT we drag it to the ditch and there it ROTS. A huge waste of game here due to roadkills. With a 70 mph secondary road limit and 75 on the Interstates, most road hit game is a smear anyway.

MT law doesn't allow ANY roadkill to be tagged, retreived or consumed.

FN in MT

In Australia deer were introduced over a 100 years ago. Some have thrived others haven't. The deer we found that was roadhit was a fallow deer that is growing in numbers around my area. Originally they were escapees from deer farms. I work in the bush and have been seeing them for years but not in great numbers. What I'm getting at is most of your townies in this country aren't even aware that deer exist in the wild! I work as a Forest Ranger and sometimes I get excited calls from leisure drivers that saw a big brown animal with horns on it. As far as I know this animal we got was the 1st road hit deer ever where I live, so I'll have to check on the legality of taking the skin and meat. I know that were not allowed to take native animals like Kangaroos but knowing how the lawmakers think there probably is a law against it. There are some pretty dumb laws and if your unlucky they will be enforced by some officious bugger, but practical people have there own code. Yes now I wish I went for the rest of the meat but I was at work and had another job to take care of. Thanks everyone for your input, part of that meat is going towards a nice curry this week with friends. A few beers also which I will toast to you blokes.

Best Regards

I PROBABLY kill 40-60 deer a year that have been car tenderized first. Sometimes the people want them and sometimes they don't.
All it takes in Michigan is to fill out a car/kill tag and they are legal to have.

Have a friend who was hitting 5-8 deer a year in his full size Chevy van when he was commuting a certain area. He got tired of having body work done and had a "custom" brush guard added to decrease the impact damage. In rural places might have to wait 2-3 hours before a car could respond to the scene, so I showed him how to fill out the tags and gave him a book. He just filled out his own tags after that.

Probably 2/3s of the deer hit go to waste because no one wants them.

It's probably fine. I ate a road-killed deer in Pennsyvania once; we called the game warden at 6 am Sunday morning to ask about it and he said take it home as he wasn't interested in getting out of bed. We popped it with a 30-06, which we took because we didn't know how far the deer had gone since being hit. A .22 RF would have been enough.

Oregon is like Montana evidently. All of our " animal rights" activist have it where you can dispatched a wounded deer hit by a car.

Of course I know that there are a lot of people in Non Metro Oregon, that ignore the state law and humanely will dispatch the animal, even tho it is against state law.

However, Native Americans do not have the law applied to them. Several times I have dispatched deer that have been hit by a car in Central and Eastern Oregon. Native Americans have been nearby and each time ASKED me first, If I mind if they could have the carcass.

I am sure it was sausage by the time breakfast rolled around the next morning.

Once in Northern Michigan ( Da U.P> I hit a small deer coming into some town that ran out on the road at a dead gallop. I was only doing 30 miles an hour, but I blinked and there it was. I hit it, and tore up the front end of my Volvo.

Across the road was a VFW. I went in to call the Michigan State Police and report it for my insurance company's requirements. When I walked out of the VFW, four guys were hucking the deer in the back of a pickup and a big gut pile stood in front of my front bumper, right out in the middle of the road. Gotta love those Yumpers!
Waste not want not.

Like LAWCOP said, in Mi. you get a tag from the local LE, and it is yours. however, don't even think about putting it down. you will go thru hell, trying to convince some officers that you really didn't poach it.
And don't expect them to help you in any way. they might help you get it off the road, but probaby not.
A friend and I went to retreive a deer once. we got there after the state police made a report. they issued a tag, then stood around while I field dressed it. It was early spring, and this doe had fawns. The officers got a little squeamish when I threw the fawns on the shoulder of the road, and suddenly had to leave. city folks