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Several news sources have recently pondered, is roadkill safe to eat?
The answer? Well, sort of.
On the pro-roadkill eating side:
If an animal was recently killed but otherwise healthy, the meat is actually much fresher than what you might find in a grocery store, explained Steve Rinella of the Travel Channel's "The Wild Within" on HuffPost Food recently (see his video of finding and preparing raccoon roadkill, after the jump). Daniel Klein of "The Perennial Palate" has a similar philosophy in this video, in which he prepares venison tartare from a deer collected from the side of the road that was "still steaming."
Even PETA basically agrees with both men. The animal-rights group advises, "If people must eat animal carcasses, roadkill is a superior option to the neatly shrink-wrapped plastic packages of meat in the supermarket."
Most recently, Food Safety News interviewed several roadkill-eating enthusiasts and gathered that there are a few good general rules of thumb to follow, such as the fact that eating roadkill in the winter may be safer since the animal is essentially refrigerated upon its death. Rinella adds that for raccoons, when the blood has not yet coagulated and the hair is not oily, those are both good signs that the animal was recently killed and therefore okay to eat.
Laws vary state by state, but in some states, eating roadkill is encouraged, usually via the game warden phoning interested individuals when a fresh carcass is found. In Alaska, roadkill meat is distributed to charities, after being sent to a volunteer butcher.
On the anti-roadkill eating side:
It can be hard to tell the health of an animal after it has died, so Slate advises to be wary of tularemia or "rabbit fever," a bacterial infection transmitted by inhalation, when taking rabbits from the roadside.
Additionally, animals raised for slaughter typically go through food safety checks that roadkill animals are obviously not subjected to.
So, how does one know if the recently killed deer on the side of the road will make a healthy venison stew? Well, one can never be sure, though based on the clip below, perhaps we should be incorporating more raccoon into our diets.
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4-19-2011 @10:58PM woodsgirl said... I ate roadkill once. My mother accidententally hit a deer coming home one night, and it depressed her less to butcher it than leave it there. She was a veterinarian, thus i can assume she suspected it to be in good health, even so, she was careful to cook it thoroughly.
It was yummy.
However, i'd strongly advise excersizing extreme caution when selecting roadkill to eat... like the article warns ( and mom telling me about all sorts of zoonotic disease). Personally, i wouldn't eat any i hadnt seen killed. I know hunters who dress a deer as soon as they can to prevent bacteria from the intestines from infecting the meat, and a car killed animal is likely not to be a "clean kill".
would i eat roadkill again? sure.... but if i had hit it myself i'd have to stop crying first... i'm a softy.
would i prefer it to meat in the store? Definately. Far less disgusting than CAFOs.
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4-21-2011 @3:18AM Robbie said... Did anyone else notice the great photography? The picture was taken so that in that "Road kill cemetery," the recently departed enters Eternity at the foot of a cross. --- If you don't know what I'm referring to, look at the telephone/electric pole at its head. Cooooolll!
4-20-2011 @1:40AM Marriar said... Wow I have lots of rabbits in my backyard this fever thing what the sign? No I don't eat the bunny they live free in the woods.
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4-20-2011 @11:01PM Michael said... Rabbits taken after the first hard frost will as a rule be free of fleas. A discolored liver could be a sign of disease and I would not eat it. Too, be sure that you have no open wounds on your hands that could allow bacteria into your body when you skin it and clean it.
4-20-2011 @9:01AM LinC said... My grandmother used to run out into the road when a pheasant would get hit by a car. She sad they were good eating.
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4-20-2011 @9:04PM Geegee Davis said... What a disgusting topic !! Out of all the topics, it seems there would be something we could express our views about rather than eating roadkill. If I was starving to death, perhaps I'd eat roadkill. Otherwise, I will go to the grocery store and get some chicken or beef. And I don't forget to cook it WELL done. Let's move on to another topic, PLEASE !!!
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4-21-2011 @12:03AM Leila said... Your world must be incredibly small. I bet you're one of those that can't go camping because you'll break a nail or you have to wash your hair every day. Bet you'd bring your high heels too.
4-21-2011 @2:26AM noel said... Doesn't seem to have hurt my neighbors.
4-20-2011 @9:24PM aunt wayne said... If you witness the kill or did it your self, I would definitely say that it is ok, now, having said that, about 7or 8 years ago, I came across a doe on the side of the road at roughly 8:00 in the am, and had a doctors appointment, so I picked it up on the way home, took it to the meat locker and told them how I wanted it packaged. Needless to say , when it came time to enjoy my "free" deer, that was the nastiest tasting deer I ever ate. In hind sight, it probably got hit by a car early the night before, but, not me or the butchers noticed any odor, threw all of the meat out that I paid for.
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4-20-2011 @9:22PM barb said... Weren't they just complaining about people drinking "raw" milk? This is just plain disgusting.
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4-20-2011 @10:11PM Dennis said... This would not even be a topic, but based on the current economic status of millions without a job, we now have to look at our other options for feeding our families.
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4-20-2011 @10:09PM DuckLover said... My brother in law always used to speed through the duck crossings when it was his turn to make dinner
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4-20-2011 @10:19PM THE RAY said... Nobody ever said anything about eating is RAW, dum dum.
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4-20-2011 @11:07PM Michael said... Actually a reference to eating raw meat was made. Veneson Tartare is raw meat. Just like steak tartare. The Tartar's used to carry hunks of raw horse meat under their saddles and eat it raw.
4-20-2011 @10:32PM WeAllEat said... I wouldn't be too worried about zoonotic diseases from roadkill if I could tell for certain that an animal had just recently been killed, because essentially it's no different from an animal that was shot by a hunter. But I still wouldn't like to pick up an animal that was killed and didn't have a chance to fully bleed out first.
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4-20-2011 @10:52PM John said... It's too bad animals have had to suffer through the ages because of Eve's original sin. Before this they didn't have to prey on each other for food nor did they have to provide for man's sustainence. Hope Jesus has a special place in Heaven for all animals as they do deserve more than what is given them in this life.
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4-21-2011 @12:03AM Leila said... Obviously you've never read the Bible.
4-22-2011 @11:25AM judica said... @Leila
Obviously, you have never read the bible. God did not make the specific provision to eat meat until the flood.
4-20-2011 @11:24PM Brenda said... What about rabies??? Its blood would still be fresh looking and so would the hair......thats just plain crazy! I dont know if cooking would kill the rabies virus or not..but still.....ewwwww!
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4-21-2011 @12:03AM Leila said... Cooking at a certain temperature will kill the virus.