View Full Version : mmmmm fresh roadkill
bushwacker bob
22-01-2004, 22:41
does anyone actually eat roadkill? or anyone any idea what the law on collecting road kill is? I passed a dead muntjac and a dead roe on a back road to winchester this week.I returned along the same route about an hour later and both had been taken.Not into eating roadkill myself,but these two large pieces of meat obviously had a value to someone :evil: :?: :-?
i think the score is if you hit it you cant keep it as you would then get people using their vehicles as weapons but if you`re in the car behind you can fill your boots and your freezer :-D
if you hit it you cant keep it ... :-D
Sorry, I'm a fussy b***d. If I didn't hit it, I wouldn't want it ! Lord knows how, what, why, where, when and how long it could have been lying there ! :-D
Cheers
well i`m a veggie so do road kill carrots that fell off the farmers trailer count ? :-D
At the wilderness gathering this question came up, I think it was Jack who said don't pick up any Deer unless you or your saw it hit as if the deer was only injured often a vet is called out who will inject the deer with lethal poison but they are not obliged to remove the deer from the roadside.
I've eaten roadkill deer on a number of occasions - but be careful. The impact of a car hitting the beast can cause all sorts of nasties. Watch out for shards of needle like bone in the meat. you can find them often in meat quite far from the actual impact spot. if the gut has been ruptured most of the meat will be tainted. If the bowel has been damaged then again the meat will be tainted. If the blood on the road isn't fresh then I'd leave it. Meat from a deer that hasn't been gralloched and has been lying even for a few hours tastes awful - I think it's probably to do with gut and bowel bacteria.
If I find a roadkill deer and I'm sure it's fresh I'll usually just take the back legs off it - as long as the impact was at the front end.
We don't have the Vet and poison problem up here so I'm not worried about that but I do hate to see perfectly good meat going to waste.
George
YEP me too - just be careful when approaching animals as I have seen two deer leap up after being hit - looked dead were obviously just stunned.
Roving Rich
23-01-2004, 12:16
Yep, I've eaten a bit of roadkill. Skinning and gutting deer is a bit like a post mortem, to find out what killed it. I believe it was Drew of Survival School that set vets inject em with pethidrin. I have never heard this anywhere else so it remains unconfirmed as far as I am concerned.
Huge Furry whippingtool is quite up for road kill and discusses it in a couple of his books.
Basically it has gotta be fresh, no maggots, no smell. Preferably still warm before rigamortis. :roll:
I have had to despatch a bunny i hit and a pheasant the car infront hit already this month. Still didn't go to waste eh.
Cheers
Rich
woodsitter
23-01-2004, 12:21
Yea, these peasants make nasty dents in your car, can't realy eat them tho :wink:
Roving Rich
23-01-2004, 12:23
You ought to watch out for those Revolting Peasant :wink: :twisted:
Rich
woodsitter
23-01-2004, 12:44
When thei are dead for a while, then they get really revolting :-?
I (accidently!) cycled over a rat on the way to work the other day - had to finish it off by hand since it was still twitching :shock:
Roving Rich
23-01-2004, 13:17
Mmmm Lunch ?
:lol:
MartiniDave
23-01-2004, 13:18
Boaty,
Be careful handling rats, wash your hands very well. The things carry wiels (sp) disease, which is far from pleasant and can be fatal. Take care mate.
Dave
Boaty,
Be careful handling rats, wash your hands very well. The things carry wiels (sp) disease, which is far from pleasant and can be fatal. Take care mate.
Dave
Thanks Dave - I was wearing gloves as it was early morning and a bit chilly.
One of our cats is a champion ratter, so I try and make sure I'm the first one there with a shovel to collect the "presents" she brings!
|'m probably more likely to get Weils while rowing on our slow-moving river though :yikes:
As a bushcrafty vet perhaps I can spread some light on this.
If the animal (usually deer) is dead from impact it wouldn't get injected.
If it is seriously injured we might inject the deer or we might shoot it (however many vets who shoot them take them home for the freezer!)
If injecting we would usually use barbiturate which is pretty nasty stuff so to conclude I wouldn't eat it unless:
1) You saw it hit.
2) You can see a bullet hole in the head.
Hope this helps, no vet wants poisoned bushcrafters on his conscience!
Cheers,
RJP. :-)
Roving Rich
28-01-2004, 10:41
:shock: :AR15firin
Oh Deer, guess i better steer clear of road kill then :wink:
Do you get called out to deal with these often? Or is it rare when someone is in a state or thepolice have called you. Is there much room left in your freezer?
Cheers
Rich
I personally don't get called often but colleagues in large animal practice get about one a year. Hence the freezer is a bit empty. Police or drivers call.
Cheers,
Rob. :lol:
YEP me too - just be careful when approaching animals as I have seen two deer leap up after being hit - looked dead were obviously just stunned.
About 2 years ago one of the local worthys around here came across a red deer stag tangled in a broken fence. It looked pretty much the worse for wear - must have been in there all night and had thrashed itself around a bit.
Rather than give the local deer stalker a call, who would have shot it and put it out its misery, he decided he would try to free it. Well I'm sure you can work out what happened next - as he approached, the stag made a miraculous recovery, opened up said local worthy's leg with an antler, broke free from the remains of the fence and ran for the hills.
Being more than 2 hours from the nearest hospital it was all a bit touch and go whether there would be serious permanent damage to the guys leg. Nerve endings severed, tendon and ligament damage etc. etc. It took a long time for him to recover and hopefully taught him not to approach a trapped and frightened beast like that again (it certainly taught me!!)
As a follow up, a stag was found dead a few hundred metres from the fence a couple of days later - looked like it had died shortly after breaking free.
Nasty things antlers.
George
woodsitter
30-01-2004, 23:54
It might not count as roadkill, but...
http://www.yoxio.com/images.php?id=10824
:rolleyes:
Is that the whale in Taiwan that explode?
It might not count as roadkill, but...
http://www.yoxio.com/images.php?id=10824
:rolleyes:
Yeah it looks it.
Could you imagine walking down the street when it happened. It would be quite a shock! It's just amazing really.
woodsitter
31-01-2004, 10:09
It's Taiwan all right.
Imagine that guy on the scooter bike, crusin down the main road, off to meet his new girlfriend parents, everything cool, when suddenly... :yikes: bang splatter!
:rolmao:
Stupid thing by the way, even I knew that this could happen. That’s why over here they cut them up on the beach, slice them open as soon as possible to prevent explosion.
Well I guess another learning experience.
Bob, would you like to carve yourself a piece out of that?
Did anyone ever taste whale? This one was already dead, Greenpeace would't mind I guess.
As a bushcrafty vet perhaps I can spread some light on this.
If the animal (usually deer) is dead from impact it wouldn't get injected.
If it is seriously injured we might inject the deer or we might shoot it (however many vets who shoot them take them home for the freezer!)
If injecting we would usually use barbiturate which is pretty nasty stuff so to conclude I wouldn't eat it unless:
1) You saw it hit.
2) You can see a bullet hole in the head.
Hope this helps, no vet wants poisoned bushcrafters on his conscience!
Cheers,
RJP. :-)
Yep,
Good advice! Lot's of excitement in the press around Cannock Chase recently after an injured deer was finished off with barbiturates and then vanished before the truck arrived to take the corpse away!
Now a pheasant in good condition is another matter!
David
Burnt Ash
23-02-2004, 07:45
As a bushcrafty vet perhaps I can spread some light on this.
If the animal (usually deer) is dead from impact it wouldn't get injected.
If it is seriously injured we might inject the deer or we might shoot it (however many vets who shoot them take them home for the freezer!)
If injecting we would usually use barbiturate which is pretty nasty stuff so to conclude I wouldn't eat it unless:
1) You saw it hit.
2) You can see a bullet hole in the head.
Hope this helps, no vet wants poisoned bushcrafters on his conscience!
Cheers,
RJP. :-)
Surely a vet should take a poisoned animal away for safe disposal? It would be irresponsible to leave a carcass loaded w. barbiturate (or whatever) lying around as a hazard to anything that might eat it (including humans).
Personally, I have no problem with eating road kill. There is one lane near where we used to live that provided me with several pheasants and even a partridge or two every season. You don't need to be a pathologist to tell if something's been killed relatively recently and with cool/cold temperatures in winter there is little problem with deterioration (most game dealers hang pheasants for a week or more). If you have any doubts, just leave it.
_______________
I remember one occasion, a couple of years ago. I was driving along myself when I saw a cock pheasant hit full square by an oncoming car (dead centre in the radiator grill). The pheasant exploded in a cloud of feathers and I looked back in the rear view mirror to see the carcass lying in the road. As is my wont, I stopped, reversed, picked the 'dead' bird up and dumped it in the footwell on the passenger side of my car. I then continued the remaining few miles journey to my destination.
An hour or so later, I returned to the car to let my two dogs out of the back for a leg-stretch and pee. They seemed very agitated and interested in something. Somehow, the pheasant had recovered. It was crouched down blinking at me under the foot pedals on the driver's side (having crapped all over the floor). I picked it up carefully to see what injury it had sustained, fully intending to wring its neck. Amazingly, the pheasant seemed unharmed: wings and legs were working and apparently unbroken and there was no blood emanating from anywhere. I don't know why I did it, but I gently tossed the bird up into the air to see if it could fly. With a loud clamour of protest, the bugger flew off strongly half a mile across the valley. I watched it there for a few minutes, strutting about on the edge of a field.
Burnt Ash
the naughty boy
02-03-2004, 09:45
nice one burnt ash.i,d have done the same.i hunt myself,but i hate to see cruelty or mishandling,lol after all i think it deserved a break after that dont you? :-D
Yep,
Nice one Burn Ash, it clearly wasn't the day for that feathered friend to die!
David