Grocery prices are certainly on the rise these days, but should you start scouring the highways for your next meal ticket instead? I'm talking about roadkill.
Good news for some, taking home roadkill to eat or taxidermy isn't illegal unless you live in Texas. If you're driving through that state, then you want to leave any roadkill on the side of the road. You also don't want to intentionally hit an animal for a free meal. That is illegal, but it's unlikely you would want to pay the thousands in car repairs anyway.
So, taking home roadkill that you accidentally hit or just found on the roadway is legal. But should you do it? I will say it's not for the squeamish, and it isn't something I would personally recommend. I like to be sure of the quality of my meat, and roadkill comes with several questionable concerns. However, some experts who spoke with The Guardian swear by it.
Roadkill Shopping List
Professional forager Fergus Drennan explained that you should check the meat to make sure that it is still warm, as well as stiff and intact. Basically, fresh roadkill is fair game. Old roadkill and you're a mad man.
"If it's warm on a cold day then obviously it's fresh; if it's got rigor mortis, it means it's really fresh. You don't want it to be completely smashed to pieces," he says. "Who in their right mind would scrape an animal off the road? It has got to look in immaculate condition."
That being said he would still consider roadkill that's missing a head.
He explained, "You're not going to eat the head of a pheasant anyway, so it's perfectly all right, isn't it? If everything else is all right."
Naturalist and taxidermist Jonathan McGowan is also a fan of the practice.
"I've eaten roadkill for the whole of my adult life. I've hardly ever bought any commercial meat," he says. "All my meat comes from roadkill. Birds, rodents, badgers, foxes, owls, rats, deer. Anything, really."
So the question is would you eat something like this? To each his own, but I'll stick to the grocery store.
