I would think it’s actually a public service if you do take it, so it doesn’t present a traffic hazard or something that someone else needs to come clean up. I’m sure game laws vary by state, so to be safe, I would call the cops and ask their permission. If they say no, then you’ve at least done your duty and pointed out where they need to come clean up the corpse.
But we need a hunter in here. Don’t you need to dress the deer right away, so that the meat doesn’t taste horrible? I’m not a hunter, but members of my family are. I was under the impression that you needed to make some kind of cuts and bleed them out or else the meat would taste pretty lousy.
Maybe they have insurance and need an accident report? Just a guess.
Where I work there is a simple form that needs to be filled out and then you can take the deer. If not animal control comes out and takes it. It is not used or donated, it’s just dumped.
Where I live the deer stay where they land until they rot away. I had to call the health department a couple of times because of the buzzards feeding on a deer right next to my daughters bus stop. I hear ther is one guy who picks up for the whole county.
I’m not a hunter, but Mr. Stuff used to be quite a hunter. He will not, as a rule, eat venison that has not been dressed by himself or someone he knows, because he doesn’t like the taste of venison that hasn’t been properly and immediately “dressed.” If he knows who shot the deer, he can determine whether the meat was taken care of right.
If a deer is shot, typically much of the blood has been pumped out through the wound. In the case of a deer hit on the road, the blood has not been removed, and the intestines have not been removed (unless of course you pull over, whip out your hunting knife, and get to work). The intestines deteriorate very rapidly and cause an unpleasant flavor in the meat.
So, yeah, you can eat it and there is no health hazard, but it’s not going to taste as good as a hunted deer that was properly dressed.
All information above is solely the opinion of Mr. Stuff and is not endorsed by the NRA, Venison Eaters of America, or the State Highway Patrol. As always, YMMV.
When I was a kid (very rural Northern California) roadkill was a significant part of the menu. I remember once we were following a car with some City Folks in it. They hit a deer, broke its leg. The following conversation went like this:
CF: Oh my God, oh my God, is it ok?
Us: Umm, no, you broke its leg.
CF: Oh my God, what should we do, should we take it to a vet? We don’t know anyone around here.
Us: No worries, we’ll take care of it.
CF: Oh, thank you so much. Will it be OK?
Us: I’m sure it will be OK.
Well, I’m here to tell you that it was not only OK … it was delicious.
This is not gold, but here in Michigan, you call the cops to advise them and they usually give the ok for you to take it.
If you don’t they call someone to do the clean up and that someone is a former co-worker of my husband who salveges the meat. (I just called Mr. Ujest to get the Michigan Scoop on this.)
I’d think that if you had a car, and could afford to drive it, you could better survive off the 1 dollar double cheeseburgers at mcdonalts. If you want to mess with roadkill, go for it. And if you really want to live off dead dear, you could probably get more than your fill with a baseball bat, assuming deer were plentiful enough.
In MA (at least the town in which my father is a police dispatcher), they maintain a list. If your name is at the top, you get a call to go get it… if you can’t, they go to the next name on the list. When you go get one, you move back to the bottom of the list. [if the deer is down, but not dead, they bring out “the item,” a .22 rifle kept at the station for the purpose, to dispatch the deer… it saves the paperwork required if the officers were to use their service weapon to finish the deed… the sight of the .22 makes the liberals who hit the poor deer sad. It makes someone else VERY happy! ]
In NH, you’ll often have multiple folks pull up and say, “Are you keeping the deer? No? Can I take it? :D” Most PDs have a “list”
As I DO carry a hunting knife in my car, I’d be all set to gut out a deer in the event that I hit one with my car… I’m not sure I’d stop to try to take someone else’s though… but it’s crossed my mind when I’ve seen a nice fresh one downed.
My sister’s boyfriend in upstate New York tells a funny story about his neighbor who hit a deer with her car. He’s a hunter didn’t see the point of the deer going to waste, so he strung up the deer on a branch of the tree in the front yard and began “dressing” it. Aside from being a hunter, he is also a teacher at the local school, and described witnessing the school bus passing by with several mortified students staring at their teacher whose forearms were covered up to the elbows in blood.
Just out of curiousity, what should I do if I don’t kill the deer I hit? I don’t normally carry knives or firearms in my vehicle, so what could I do to put it out of its misery?
Hit it with the car again? Batter it with a tire iron?
My father once hit a large antelope on a rural road in Uganda, at night. His car was totalled, and the deer had a broken back and was screaming in agony. He had to beat its skull in with a hammer. :eek:
After that, he always kept a machete in the car.
When I was in grade school we hit a deer while traveling along the interstate. The deer was still in relatively good shape, well apart from the being killed part. At one point the highway patrolman asked my parents if they wanted to keep the deer. My parents just looked at each other in bewilderment. Finally my mother says, “What on Earth for?”
