Roadkill Recipe Cook Books

Roadkill is any animal that has been struck and killed by a motor vehicle.

It is estimated that 1.5 million deer are killed annually on U.S. highways, other large roadkill animals may include bear, elk, moose, and the occasional Caribou. Smaller animals hit by vehicles include raccoons, skunks, possums, squirrels, chipmunks, armadillos, mice, frogs, snakes, fox, otters and many others. Fluttering, flying, waddling, and walking birds are also frequently killed on local highways.

Roadkill are also referred to as "flat meats" and roadkill can be virtually any member of your local wild animal population.

* It is important to note that people who are struck by vehicles do not fall under the classification of roadkill.

The costs of removing roadkill from local highways is high. Not only must contractors be paid a fee for picking up the carcass but then comes the dilemma of how to dispose of all those dead bodies once they are gathered.

With an estimated 1.5 million deer alone being killed on U.S. roads each year, world wide the costs of roadkill disposal can be pretty high. Roadkill is burned, buried, rendered, eaten by scavengers, donated to local charities, used by trappers as bait, and sometimes gobbled up as roadkill by the person who hit it. Some states have even turned to composting the carcasses.

In Tennessee a republican senator named Ted Burchett wanted to pass a proposal which essentially would read ''Wild animals accidentally killed by a motor vehicle may be possessed by any person for personal use and consumption.'' opening up roadkill for the taking of locals. Unfortunately for some unforeseen reason the local media had a hay-day with this concept and it quickly became known as the "Roadkill bill".

Roadkill should be thoroughly examined and cleaned of embedded rocks, twigs, and dirt before cooking. Choking on a rock can be hazardous to your health.

While roadkill does have some advantages over commercial meat, the largest one being that it is free, there are also some definite safety precautions to take into account before you decide to chow down on that roadside carcass.

1. Freshness is a major factor. Roadkill that you stumble upon may be best left where it is, but if you killed the critter, then the freshness of your meat is pretty much guaranteed and it is probably safe to it.

2. Always make sure that the animal really is dead before you strap it to the roof of your car, throw it in the back of your truck, or pop it into your trunk. Yes, animals have indeed woken up, and not been too happy to discover that someone wanted to invite them home for dinner.

3. How flat or smooshed up is it? Cause if the critter has internal gooshings mixed up in the meat then it is most likely not safe to eat. Get back in your vehicle and move on down the road.

4. Does the carcass look like it came from a healthy animal. Fatter healthier animals are less likely to have some gosh awful disease lurking in their meat.

This very informative Wikipedia article contains a listing of the calories, fat, and cholesterol in common wild game which is most likely to show up as roadkill: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roadkill_cuisine.

Although wild game generally has substantially leaner meat (without the antibiotics and other additives which often wind up in commercially processed meat) wild meat does come with other issues. Wild game meat can contain worms, or other disease, and not be safe to it. Always cook wild game thoroughly before consuming it.

Don't just presume that if you killed it that it is yours to keep. It is always safest to be aware of the regulations in your area for laying claim to roadkill.

Although some provinces, counties, and states want you to contact them when an animal collision occurs, they will often issue you a tag to keep it, and then that roadkill is officially yours to eat. However there are some areas of the country where roadkill is completely off limits to those who create it. In these jurisdictions you are in no way, shape, or form, allowed to eat what you kill.

This very informative Wikipedia article displays a few of the United States area regulations: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roadkill_cuisine

For Canadian roadkill information check out:

British Columbia: http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/pasb/road_kill.html

Saskatchewan: http://www.environment.gov.sk.ca/

Contact your local wildlife branch for roadkill regulations and restrictions within your area.

Did you know that...

In Illinois you are not entitled to roadkill if you are delinquent in your child support payments.

In Texas residents are officially discouraged from eating roadkill.

In an average year in British Columbia there are 9280 reported animal collisions resulting in 4 reported human deaths and 4900 animal deaths. However actual animal roadkill death statistics are estimated to be much higher than those recorded.

Along bogs, swamps, and other wetlands the majority of roadkill (up to 95 percent) can be frogs, salamanders, and other amphibians.

Rednecks have long been associated with the term roadkill and with logical reasoning.

Rednecks were typically shunned by those who perceived themselves as being of a higher class than them. Forced to rely on their wits to make ends meet, rednecks hunted, farmed, and scavenged the local countryside for their food sources.

If a free meal presents itself to a Redneck it is indeed a temptation difficult to simply pass by.

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