Road Kill

rs65

dacouch wrote: »

There's nothing better in life than a game bird

Two game birds ?

davidgmmafan

Would it be written into law or would it be more to do with common law? Its not hard to imagine an old stagecoach having some hefty accidents so may have all been thrashed out before the advent of the motor car.

patman99

dacouch wrote: »

There's nothing better in life than a game bird

I know a few of them

sharnad

Aretnap wrote: »

The idea that you can't pick up roadkill you've hit yourself but you can pick up roadkill hit by someone else has always sounded like an urban myth to me, and on searching I can't find anything which resembles a reliable source to support it. Can anyone find one - or better still the statute or case law which establishes it?

Deliberately running over animals for food would doubtless fall foul of various animal protection and/or anti-poaching legislation, but if the original accident was unintentional, I can't think of any reason why it would make a difference whether you were the driver or not.

The most obvious offence you might commit is theft - many animals (certainly game and livestock) are the property of someone, and I don't believe ownership is extinguished just because the animal is dead. It seems that you'd be OK with wild animals though, unless they've already been "reduced into possession by another person" (ie captured or found by someone else, I think).

There's a specific offence of removing a deer carcass without the landowner's consent, which would certainly apply whether you hit it yourself, or you just found it at the side of the road.

WCA section 11 c d and e I think.

kaya

Aretnap wrote: »

The idea that you can't pick up roadkill you've hit yourself but you can pick up roadkill hit by someone else has always sounded like an urban myth to me, and on searching I can't find anything which resembles a reliable source to support it. Can anyone find one - or better still the statute or case law which establishes it?

Deliberately running over animals for food would doubtless fall foul of various animal protection and/or anti-poaching legislation, but if the original accident was unintentional, I can't think of any reason why it would make a difference whether you were the driver or not.

The most obvious offence you might commit is theft - many animals (certainly game and livestock) are the property of someone, and I don't believe ownership is extinguished just because the animal is dead. It seems that you'd be OK with wild animals though, unless they've already been "reduced into possession by another person" (ie captured or found by someone else, I think).

There's a specific offence of removing a deer carcass without the landowner's consent, which would certainly apply whether you hit it yourself, or you just found it at the side of the road.

The law states that wild deer are the property of the person who's land they are on at that time , theoretically I could cull roe or fallow deer that are on my land regardless of where they came from , not sure if that would apply to other mammals though , muntjacs are classed as vermin as they are a non native species

Aretnap

sharnad wrote: »

WCA section 11 c d and e I think.

That makes it illegal to use certain hunting methods - snares, explosives, machine guns, and also pursuing animals with mechanically propelled vehicles (linky). It doesn't seem to say anything about accidentally hitting an animal which runs out in front of you, or about what you can do with the carcass afterwards.

kaya wrote: »

The law states that wild deer are the property of the person who's land they are on at that time , theoretically I could cull roe or fallow deer that are on my land regardless of where they came from...

As far as I can tell that's roughly correct, though the Deer Act phrases it in terms of entitlement to shoot them rather than ownership of them. So you wouldn't be allowed to take a deer carcass from the roadside unless you owned the land, or had the landowner's permission.

muntjacs are classed as vermin as they are a non native species

Are they? The Deer Act applies to "any species of deer" and doesn't appear to differentiate between native and non-native species.