# Why Can't We eat Roadkill? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 31, 2002, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-eat-roadkill/111788 "2002-05-31T20:17:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2002, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-eat-roadkill/111788/1 "2002-05-31T20:17:46Z")
Seriously, folks…how do birds (crows, turkey vultures, etc) get away with eating roadkill without dying from food poisoning or sepsis? I don’t understand how they do it…not that I want to, but it made me wonder how THEY can! (Heck, look what raw hamburger does to us!) Looking for cheap eats in these tough economic times 😉 - Jinx ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2002, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-eat-roadkill/111788/2 "2002-05-31T20:21:49Z")
who says we can’t eat roadkill? Just cook it good, to kill the parasites and possible e.coli and other nasty bacterial strains. As for the carrion eaters, well that’s what they evolved to eat. ---
**Author:** ![chula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a4c791/32.png) [@chula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chula)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2002, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-eat-roadkill/111788/3 "2002-05-31T20:37:47Z")
I’ve eaten road kill. In France. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2002, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-eat-roadkill/111788/4 "2002-05-31T20:49:16Z")
I’ve even seen a roadkill cookbook. Ahh…here it is. [The Original Roadkill Cookbook](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0898152003/ref=pd_bxgy_text_1/103-3899936-2878234) You better hurry though 'cuz it looks like only a few are left in stock. ---
**Author:** ![Kalashnikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/2bfe46/32.png) [@Kalashnikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalashnikov)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2002, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-eat-roadkill/111788/5 "2002-05-31T20:58:08Z")
The Best venison I ever had was roadkill backstrap (a young doe). In some areas, roadkill deer are routinely given to soup kitchens. In fact it may be illegal to keep it (govt. property…) Smaller animals are probably too mangled to bother with, unless you’re starving. Commercial hamburger is butchered assembly-line style, so it has more chance to be exposed to parasites & germs. Presumably a person cleaning a roadkill would be extra careful to wash it and throw away any questionable bits. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2002, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-eat-roadkill/111788/6 "2002-05-31T21:01:11Z")
Because we’re not scavengers. We don’t have the stomach for it. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2002, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-eat-roadkill/111788/7 "2002-05-31T21:06:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kalashnikov \* > \*\*In some areas, roadkill deer are routinely given to soup kitchens. In fact it may be illegal to keep it (govt. property…) > \*\* A friend of mine was driving through Indiana and hit a deer which was killed in the collision. While my friend was waiting for the police to show three different people pulled over and asked if they could have the deer. He wouldn’t give it up though because he thought he might need it to prove to the police (and really his insurance) that he did indeed smack a deer. I’ve heard varying stories about the legality of keeping a deer you hit if it is out of season. On the one hand it’s dead anyway and someone may as well get some use out of it but on the other hand I guess the state wouldn’t want deer hunters trying to run them down either (or shooting it and then running it over a bit and saying they shot it to put it out of its misery). ---
**Author:** ![mouthbreather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a698b9/32.png) [@mouthbreather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mouthbreather)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2002, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-eat-roadkill/111788/8 "2002-05-31T21:07:38Z")
A law passed in 1998 in West Virginia encourages you to do so; they claim it was passed so that the state could spend less time picking up dead animals. [http://www.bayweekly.com/year98/burton6\_10.html](http://www.bayweekly.com/year98/burton6_10.html) ---
**Author:** ![agkistrodon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c5a1d2/32.png) [@agkistrodon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/agkistrodon)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2002, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-eat-roadkill/111788/9 "2002-05-31T21:08:26Z")
slim jim, anyone? ---
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2002, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-eat-roadkill/111788/10 "2002-05-31T21:10:19Z")
One objection to eating roadkill is that you don’t know what the health of the animal was like before it met its demise. If you saw a squirrel staggering through the woods, disoriented, with open skin lesions, you’d probably look elsewhere for dinner–whether or not the squirrel disease would actually be communicable to humans. It’d just be distasteful. But once it’s been run over by a truck, the more obvious symptoms might be obliterated. As for how birds eat carrion without getting sick, a quick Google on “vultures get sick” yeilds: [http://www.discover.com/ask/main32.html](http://www.discover.com/ask/main32.html) > [@](#): > > The Turkey Vulture eats mostly carrion, from fresh to putrid, but prefer fresh. They seem to have unusual resistance to any ill effects from eating diseased meat. Vultures are unaffected after eating animals infected with botulism, cholera, or anthrax. In the past, farmers accused turkey vultures of spreading these diseases in their droppings. But experiments have shown this to be false: the disease organisms apparently do not survive in the vulture’s digestive tract. No other eaters of carrion – from hyenas and jackals to coyotes, and eagles – have found a way to avoid these illnesses. > > No one knows what kills the pathogens inside the vulture’s gut. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2002, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-eat-roadkill/111788/11 "2002-05-31T21:35:56Z")
Because we can’t all be Clinton “Skink” Tyree. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2002, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-eat-roadkill/111788/12 "2002-05-31T21:47:43Z")
Here in Alaska, people not only eat road kill, they have to put their names on a list to be chosen to claim it! [Roadkill charity](http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/news/010402_sn_roadkill.html) > [@](#): > > “It gives more folks a chance for free meat. A lot of people can’t afford to buy steaks or even hamburger, at least judging from the calls I get,” said Eileen Brooks, the roadkill program coordinator for the Anchorage region and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, who is known among colleagues as Queen of the Gut Pile. > > Other states have roadkill programs, but primarily for smaller animals like elk and deer. Maine is among the few states with moose and gives motorists first right to roadkills, then donates unwanted animals to the needy. > > Alaska Fish and Wildlife Protection Troopers coordinate the Alaska program, which requires that the meat be given away to anyone who asks. Nonprofit groups, including churches, sign up to take turns collecting the roadkill remains. ---
**Author:** ![Wikkit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c0e974/32.png) [@Wikkit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wikkit)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2002, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-eat-roadkill/111788/13 "2002-05-31T21:53:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Podkayne \* > **One objection to eating roadkill is that you don’t know what the health of the animal was like before it met its demise. If you saw a squirrel staggering through the woods, disoriented, with open skin lesions, you’d probably look elsewhere for dinner–whether or not the squirrel disease would actually be communicable to humans. It’d just be distasteful. But once it’s been run over by a truck, the more obvious symptoms might be obliterated.** There are exceptions. Some guys I know were hunting deer as a group during normal shotgun season, and flushed a deer onto a highway where it was hit by a truck. Since they were there, and they would have shot it if it hadn’t gotten away, the sheriff let them take it. Since it was roadkill, they didn’t even need to use one of their tags. One of the guys is well enough known that the sheriff or DNR guy has called him on a couple occasions where there has been a relatively non-violent roadkill asking if he wanted it. I think the main reason most people don’t eat roadkill is that most people don’t eat the animals that are likely to be roadkilled. Not many people eat possum or racoon, and not many more eat squirrel or deer. Overturn a turkey truck, on the other hand… ---
**Author:** ![easy\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/eb8c5e/32.png) [@easy\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/easy_e)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2002, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-eat-roadkill/111788/14 "2002-05-31T21:55:24Z")
Just because wild animals eat nasty things doesn’t mean they’re in such great shape. Possible TMI ahead . . . Last year I took a comparative anatomy class, so I had to dissect a shark and a cat. We were told that our cats were most likely feral cats killed in Mexico. They didn’t look so great on the outside, but near the end of the semester, when we got to the digestive system, most of our cats had terrible parasites. Mine had so many worms it looked like it’s last meal had been spaghetti. With a lovely lizard sauce (I found little bits of reptillian-like flesh in there, too). ---
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2002, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-eat-roadkill/111788/15 "2002-06-01T02:05:59Z")
Real conversation had by my brother (Conservation Agent) and Farmer. Farmer: Ah, yeah, hello? Yeah, I just wanted to report that I hit and killed a deer out on Route T, down by the Grande River Bridge. Brother: Okay, so are you wanting to claim the deer carcass then? Farmer: Well, I was driving my 10 ton grain truck, so I don’t think so. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2002, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-eat-roadkill/111788/16 "2002-06-01T02:39:42Z")
It’s Wisconsin state law (where one in six traffic accidents involve a deer) that if you hit and kill a deer with your car (and more recently, with your private plane!), the carcass is yours if you want it. I certainly HOPE people eat them. I wouldn’t want to think of any other reasons you would need a dead deer. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2002, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-eat-roadkill/111788/17 "2002-06-01T02:51:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by yojimboguy \* > It’s Wisconsin state law (where one in six traffic accidents involve a deer) that if you hit and kill a deer with your car (and more recently, with your private plane!), the carcass is yours if you want it. **Plane?!** I hope that was when the person was taxi-ing or something. I believe it was in the early '90s in Wisconsin; in one of those years, the number of deaths in traffic accidents due to deer was greater than the number due to drunk driving. And as a former resident, I can attest to this law as well. You just want to be sure it was a relatively clean kill; things like intestinal damage make cleaning the deer much more complicated and messy. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2002, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-eat-roadkill/111788/18 "2002-06-01T02:56:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by DeniseV \* > **…Plane?! I hope that was when the person was taxi-ing or something…** Yeah, some state legislator killed a deer on the runway, and got pissed off when the DNR took away the deer. So he introduced a bill to give pilots “parity” with drivers. ---
**Author:** ![Kalashnikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/2bfe46/32.png) [@Kalashnikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalashnikov)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2002, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-eat-roadkill/111788/19 "2002-06-01T03:00:52Z")
Not many people eat deer, **Wikkit**? And you’re from **Iowa**? Even in the darkest depths of New Jersey (where my family used to live) most people I knew had eaten venison at one time or another. I think this calls for an IMHO thread. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2002, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-eat-roadkill/111788/20 "2002-06-01T03:06:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by DeniseV \* > **Plane?!** I hope that was when the person was taxi-ing or something. Nah, it was Christmas Eve and Rudolph wasn’t in contact with the Tower. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-eat-roadkill/111788.md?page=2)