'Would you eat roadkill?' poll results/discussion

jeanmd

vitamin_joe wrote: »

A technical point- I'm not certain, but I think that picking up pheasant roadkill is classed as poaching, and is illegal.

Hi v_j,

Just to clarify. It is illegal to pick up a pheasant that you have run over, but not for someone else to pick it up. i.e. If the car in front hits one you can stop and pick it up.
I think this is to stop people deliberately running them over.

The country lanes near us frequently have a mixed 'variety' of roadkill, mainly rabbit and pheasant. We've talked about picking them up, but it has a cringe factor for us. The idea of giving them to our two dogs is an idea I would consider. Though they don't tend to stay on the roads long as there is normally some other creature having an easy meal.

SuzySF

being in a rural area there is a lot of edible road kill. right now its daft pheasant time - they dont move till the last min, however the rider here is, you dont pick up one you accidentaly run over - as you in theory could be prosecuted for poaching, however it is perfectly acceptable to pick up a pheasant someone else has hit. It its not too squished, and of course it has to be fresh, its fine to eat. As is squirrel -tastes like chicken, lol, and rabbit. But you have to be fairly quick on the mark as the buzzards, kites, crows and magpies are damned quick to get them !!!

have eaten roadkill rabbit pheasant squirrel and small deer (muntjack ??) strangely enough never come across a roadkill sheep !!!!!

food for free

SuzySF

just seen post immedately previous to mine - says the same about picking up pheaseant you've hit. sorry hadnt got that far in the listings !

jeanmd

SuzySF wrote: »

just seen post immedately previous to mine - says the same about picking up pheaseant you've hit. sorry hadnt got that far in the listings !

It's not a problem you comment was informative too.
I know what you mean about it being silly season for pheasants at the moment. There does seems to be a tremendous amount of pheasant about this year when you look in the fields.
One day last week we counted fourteen roadkills on one stretch of country lane. Unfortunately, my OH hit a rabbit the night before on the same road and that wasn't on the list as it had already been dinner for something. He had tried to brake, but still managed to run it over.

deeds

I'd be too much of a wuss for the skinning/plucking/gutting. But good on those than can and do.

Though I don't think there's much roadkill wise that I'd like to eat, unless it was a chicken,:o

awehla

How about an if I was starving/poor/in a post apocalyptic world option? I would only eat road kill if I was desperate and if someone else prepared and cooked it for me.

minerva_windsong

If I didn't know that's what it was (as in if someone else had cooked it for me), then yes. And I would probably do it myself if I was desperate and it was all right (still fresh, not squished to a pulp etc).

awehla

jackieb wrote: »

I hit a pheasant yesterday while going at 60mph (was horrible ). I didn't stop to pick it up though cos i'm not a pheasant plucker.

My boyfriend hit a pheasant on our way back from Edinburgh a couple of years ago. He'd slowed down and they were across the road when one ran back across the road killing himself because my boyfriend couldn't stop in time. We didn't take it home since it didn't even occur to us to do that though we couldn't have taken it home anyway since we still had a few hours in the car till we got home.

Here's a mildly amusing blog I wrote about it at the time: http://awehla.livejournal.com/2007/12/12/

glossyhair

Welshwoofs wrote: »

.What I find sad is that I live near the most fantastic samphire beds and when I gather during the summer I regularly get people walking past asking what I'm doing and then crumpling their noses up when I tell them....whilst at the same time restaurants charge top whack for dishes with wild samphire in.

I'm with you on that one. Wish I lived near some samphire beds!!!

Lotus-eater

I've eaten roadkill pheasant before, a couple of times, the problem comes with trying to get a carcass that isn't too squashed and battered, the bones splintered and shattered, internal organs squashed and splattered.
Give me a clean kill, not run over and I'll eat it every time.

Just think, wild free food, they live their lives healthily, which means the meat will be healthy for us to consume. Tasty too, because of the varied diet.
Better that, than intensive miserable animals, raised on dubious feed in dubious surroundings, in overstocked conditions. That means they have fatty tasteless meat on them. Unhealthy for us to eat.

I get cheap rabbit/deer and pheasant, so it's alot easier for me to just buy that, rather than stop at every roadkill on the road..... which lets face it, isn't always that safe and then check to see if it's new enough, or not squashed enough.