Just in time for Thanksgiving:
The Illinois Senate Thursday overrode Gov. Pat Quinn’s veto of legislation allowing Illinoisans to legally scoop up road kill. In action Thursday, senators voted 52-0 in favor of the proposed law, which is designed to allow people to collect dead mammals found on roadways.
h/t Rob J.
I sense a market for “roo bars” in Illinois!
While the Governor is correct that it can be dangerous, so after all can picking mushrooms.
I suppose the next step, then, is to establish training requirements and licensing, so roadkill will become at least as expensive as grocery-store shopping and procide revenue for carious levels of government… Would watching several episodes of “Roadkill Diaries” suffice as training?
You mean, it used to be illegal? That’s insane. The governor is also clearly insane.
As usual, diversionary politicians major in the minors and minor in the majors.
How about more ethically significant legislation dealing with how dead human fetuses are handled in abortion clinics? Should we simply dispose of them as “road kill” or give them the proper burials that they deserve?
What Phanton said. At least now the poor can get easier access to cheap food.
The governor is also clearly insane.
Yep. We were in high school together; he was two years ahead of me. He was an arrogant fool then, and I’ve seen nothing since to change my mind about him.
Ricardo – stay on topic.
“The measure requires the scavenger to only harvest the animals during the legal hunting or trapping season, with the required stamps and permits.”
This helps the hunter that hasn’t filled his tag, and nobody else.
As an aside, The finest meal I have ever prepared for a date was road-killed venison tenderloin served with a wild blueberry reduction sauce. There was also an occasion decades earlier where repairs to my vehicle were paid for with steaks from the very animal that caused me to require said repairs. Mmmm, roadkill.
Spent all day hunting deer. On way home after dark deer runs into side of truck. Cheap easy kill. Good supper.
Come have lunch at johnny’s Roadkill Cafe … “From your grill to ours”
My guess is that Pat Quinn hasn’t yet figured out how to tax road kill pick ups, so until then, no free lunch.
It’s illegal in BC to be in possession of roadkill, specifically game animals (deer, bullwinkles, etc)
Kate at November 11, 2011 4:18 PM: “Ricardo – stay on topic.”
Okay. In a nutshell, I support the scooping of mammalian roadkill. But not if it’s human!
🙂
Ok, maybe the lab grown hamburger doesn’t sound so bad after all. Sorry to be such an effete city-dweller, but eating road kill just sounds nasty. Ewwww.
It kind of makes sense that “harvesting” road kill is illegal… if you need a license to hunt and you are caught “poaching” you could just claim the animal ran into your truck or something. But then again I guess the conservation officer could just question the bullet hole(s).
A local native picked up a roadkill deer to feed his dogs. The fish cop stops him and tells him he can’t do that. He tells the fish cop that he can always get a fresh one. He proceeds on his way.
From the article: “Quinn vetoed the measure this summer saying he thought it was too dangerous to allow people to scurry out on streets and highways to collect the critters.”
So what if it’s dangerous? It will just provide more roadkill whilst thining the herd of those least fleet of foot and mind.
It’s a win-win the way I see it.
Dan – that’s odd, a guy I knew a few years ago from just east of Prince George had a dogsled team. He was on the roadkill waiting list (for lack of a better name), and the meat from that helped keep his pack fed for cheap. He told me that you’re OK keeping the road kill as long as the ministry (I can’t recall which one, probably transportation, but maybe silly walks) called and told you “we have a dead animal at XYZ, can you go pick it up?”
“Department of Roadkill”. That’s almost better than the department of silly walks.
Mammals, mammals, mammals! Don’t the reptiles and amphibians deserve any respect?
And what about the birds? I’m Jonesing for a bowl of Cream of Spotted Owl soup.
Think of the buzzards folks think of the buzzards!
“I’m Jonesing for a bowl of Cream of Spotted Owl soup.”
Okay, but just don’t mess with my friends the crows. I was FLOORED, FLOORED I tell ya, while eating my lunch on a seawalk bench, to see three deacon-like black birds in a triangle, bow simultaneously and then utter a very soft sound, like a prayer.
No crow pie, please…
If legislators even discuss the subject it shows they have too much time on their hands. First come first served. Wait a minute…….the state meat inspectors are Union are’nt they ?. And how many Chinese restaurants in Illinoise ?.
It’s not like the state has an $8 billion budget deficit (and rising) to worry about.
Are we absolutely sure The Simpsons don’t live in Illinois? If I were Matt Groening, I’d be all over this story. I can see Homer with his shovel putting the deer in the back of the station wagon.
As Homer would say – Hmmmmm, front bumper tenderized deer…
My neighbour spent $1400 to fix the front of his truck, so it seems only right that he got something in his freezer in return. At $14 a pound it was tasty but expensive.
Don’t the lawmakers in Illinois have more important to do? Talk about fiddling while Rome goes bankrupt.
Tollway Tostadas? Freeway Fricassee? Center-Line Sausage? Pothole Pies? Airbag Appetizers? Triple-A Tripe? Mileage Merengue? Cruise-Control Crepes? Highway Hash?
Al_in_Ottawa …… yes they do ….. and that I believe …. would be the point
Think of the buzzards folks think of the buzzards!
Posted by: Joe at November 11, 2011 9:07 PM
This will help the vultures. No more double roadkill from buzzards dining on dead raccoons at the top of a hill.
When I lived in the UK, I was told that the law didn’t allow a driver to keep a pheasant if he ran over one accidentally. The next guy coming along quite free to jump out and nab the roadkill though.
Gamebirds are very popular food in England; apparently the idea of the law was an attempt to discourage deliberate “hunting-by-car”.
I saw a really nice whitetail buck in the ditch yesterday going bird hunting. Twas bloated and covered with a little snow, and just seemed downright unappetizing. Most probably because I can afford the deer tag to collect my own fresh if I wanted.
Anyway it was a crappy bird hunt, I eventually saw one very large Spruce Grouse that I had stalked tracks for about an hour and then missed a 20 foot head shot due to my crappy scope setup on an AR platform (miss the open site Cooey .22 of my youth Big Time). At the end of the day I was too tired to chase it down and even gave that buck a second look on the way home empty handed for the first time I can remember.