“The driver involved in an accident involving a deer may take possession of the animal. If the driver does not want it, any Illinois resident may claim the deer. Anyone possessing the deer must keep a personal record of the date the deer was claimed, the sex of the animal, the location of the accident, and the place where the deer or deer parts are stored. This information must be kept until the deer is consumed or no longer in the possession of any person. This information must be provided to any law enforcement officer investigating the death and possession of the deer.”
They only make you get a tag if you take the deer to a taxidermist or tannery.
I also did not know that 11 people were killed last year in deer vs. vehicle accidents. 8 of them were motorcycle drivers or passengers.
Another non-hunter chiming in. I’ve known hunters who were quite vocal about the need to “dress” deer (or any game) immediately. Since they also liked to cook, I’d have to say they knew what they were talking about. Delicious!
As a hunter (but I don’t think we can keep roadkill in California) I have to back this up. The first thing we do is field dress the deer, which mostly entails getting the guts out. Doing this drains most of the blood too and cools the meat. If you hit a deer that you wanted to keep, you’d best carry a knife in your vehicle.
As far as eating a roadkill, I would look at the meat. You’re going to see significant bruising where the deer was actually hit, and you don’t want to eat that. But if it was smacked in the head or the front quarters, the back quarters (which are better anyway) are still going to be OK. Even though we’re not supposed to in this state, I’ve driven by roadkill and noticed that someone has sliced out the backstraps, leaving the rest of the meat on the road. That’s the best part!
During the time that I lived on a farm in upstate New York about 10 years ago, I saw a large doe get struck in the head by a car right in front of the house – it staggered onto the driveway and dropped dead, and the car kept going. I’m not a hunter, but a friend from Texas who had hunted all his life was staying with me at the time. He saw that it was only injured in the head, and he wanted to dress the deer in the yard. This was several weeks before the start of hunting season, I believe. We called the local police about it, and because we lived on a farm and farmers can apparently shoot deer out of season, he came by with a form for me to fill out and tagged the deer in my name, although I had no license and was not running a working farm.
The venison was tasty, and we kept making jokes about eating roadkill throughout the meal.
As an aside, 10 years ago at least New York had a six-month-long squirrel season. I though about getting a squirrel-hunting license just for the novelty of it. I would imagine that most people who eat squirrel wouldn’t bother with worrying about the license or the whether it’s in season or not. Just don’t tie the thing to the front of your car.
At least our jurisdiction, farmers can, but must have a permit. If, for instance, the deer population is wreaking havoc on your corn crop, you can get a permit good for seven deer. When you’ve killed seven, if you’re still having a problem, you get another permit.
However, in the case you mentioned, I can’t see anyone’s panties getting in a bunch about it. Besides, in our jurisdiction, roadkill is fair game. So to speak.
[QUOTE=Illionois]
This information must be kept until the deer is consumed or no longer in the possession of any person…
[QUOTE]
So eat quick!
I’m surprised nobody else has mentioned this, but trying to eat a deer with a car is awkward, regardless of who hit it or with what. Most people use a fork.
In Michigan you may keep any deer you hit and kill. You need to get a police report for your insurance and they will give you a tag to put on the carcass so you may transport it to your butcher or whatever. Otherwise you might get stopped on the highway for having game out of season or without a license.
This thread was really informative to me. I was always told that if you hit something with a car and kill it, usually the intestines of the animal rupture and the edible, yummy parts are sort of tainted…
But then again we don’t have many deer here, we have wild pigs. One of those totalled my beloved Geo Metro and when the sheriff came out he told me not to take it with me because it would make me sick if I ate it (rupturing innards…)
I don’t really see why it would be different for a pig vs. a deer, except that a pig is slung closer to the ground and therefore a body shot from a vehicle might be more likely. If you could obviously see where the animal was hit and it wasn’t in the midsection, you’d probably be home free. If you couldn’t tell, gutting the animal would certainly show you.
But why on earth couldn’t you just rinse the meat out, if you dressed it quickly enough? We don’t pass on hunted animals that have been gut-shot; we just clean the meat really well. Besides, most of the yummy parts aren’t hanging around the intestines.
I’ve heard a story (sorry no cite) that there is (or was) an Air Force pilot who rightfully earned the callsign “Bambi” because of an incident involving a T-38 and a deer.
I can’t post a cite because the news is still new, but I just saw on TV that there was a deer running loose at Milwaukee General Mitchell Airport, and it ran to the very, very top of the parking structure.
Doesn’t surprise me. There are deer all over the place here. I had one in my back yard (not where I live now) some years back, and I G*D D#mn nearly hit one on my Harley 2 autumns ago on College Avenue, just 10 blocks west of the airport.
So hitting one with a plane is not far fetched at all.
Could sure change that mid-flight snack on Midwest, huh?
You are required to have a deer transport tag to prove the deer was not taken illegally (night hunting, out of season, over limit, etc). Most folks call the cops, get the tag and bring the deer home. As long as you can gut it in under an hour or so, no problem. The local butchers hate it if there’s massive bone damage because it’s much tougher to avoid bone fragments. But deer burger tastes wonderful!
Also, as some folks speculated, if you’re going to file an insurance claim for the damage, most insurance companies want to see a police report so they’re not paying for something you did backing into the barn door.
pk, in the house I lived in a few years ago, we butted right up against Deer Grove on one side, and was across the street from a Jewel and Dominicks on the other. One morning there was a huge buck in our yard - it freaked, ran across Dundee Road, and was running rampant in the parking lot of the Jewel - people were scattering like crazy!
Just the other morning, where we live now - right across from Deer Grove again - we saw a huge buck just standing along Dundee Road across from the Liquor Store just staring at passing traffic.
We saw a whole herd of 'em about a month ago along the westbound ramp from 53 to Lake Cook West - they were jumping the fence to get back in the enclosed area.
