Folks in Oregon might not want to know where their elk or venison burger came from. It may be from just down the road—literally.
Oregon passed a roadkill bill in June. The measure says that motorists who crash into deer or elk may now harvest the mangled meat for food.
It’s not as strange as it sounds. About 20 other states allow people to take meat from animals killed by vehicles. Fans say roadkill can be high-quality, free-range, grass-fed grub. Animal rights activists say it’s healthier than farm-grown meat, which may contain antibiotics and hormones to increase growth.
Pennsylvania claims top honors in the country for roadkill. Records say the state had more than 126,000 vehicle-wildlife accidents in 2015 alone.
“We have a lot of roads and a lot of deer,” says Travis Lau. He is the spokesman for the Pennsylvania Game Commission. Lau admits the actual total number is uncertain.
Pro-roadkill lawmakers in Oregon cited Pennsylvania’s statistics to bolster their case. Pennsylvanians can take deer or turkeys that are killed on the road—if they report the incidents to the commission within 24 hours.
Despite the testimony of activists and officials, some Oregonians oppose the roadkill bill.
Vivian Kirkpatrick-Pilger thinks the bill is unnecessary. She says people have been salvaging roadkill in Oregon ever since vehicles and animals have been colliding. She says they’ve never needed a law or permit to do so.
But the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife insists that before the bill, the only people allowed to keep roadkill were licensed furtakers. Officials say no one was supposed to eat roadkill animals.
The no-roadkill rules were meant to discourage people from purposefully hitting animals with a vehicle. “It’s not a legal method of hunting,” the department’s website says.
Oregonian Les Helgeson dislikes the grille-to-grill bill for another reason: taste. He says roadkill “would not be palatable, much less pass any sense of health standards for human consumption.” But others say roadkill tastes just fine.
Oregon’s new law requires permits for salvaging roadkill meat for human consumption.
The state will begin issuing permits no later than January 1, 2019. And lest any hunters be tempted to run down a deer for its rack . . . all antlers must be handed over to the state’s wildlife agency.
