Roadkill- look away vegans and vegetarians

Had, had, jeez I wouldn’t want that on my wall!!

Here in Denmark road-kill is collected by the police or a nearby vet and handed in to the nearest zoo or animal park for feeding carnivores. I find that a good idea, so I am not tempted to eat road-kill myself.

I have however said jokingly for years that the cats are welcome to bring in a pheasant, as long as the break its neck cleanly before handing it over!

Ditto maryhoffman37 .... but as we live out in the country my elderly Mum still asked me to bring her any dead pheasants seen laying around ..... as if !

My friend stopped to examine a muntjack she saw hit by a car ahead. It was dead so she took it home and looked up on YouTube how to butcher it after hanging it in the garage for a few days. Rather her than me! ?

My OH was told it was legal for the next person to take it but not if you had killed it.

I have often eaten roadkill pheasant. We lived in the middle of rural Northumberland, and there was one road on my way home which often had deceased pheasants on it. I knew they hadn't been there long, because they weren't there on my morning run to work. I decided to do it the easy way and just peel back the skin and take the breasts and cut off the legs, discarding any bruised bits. Delicious, even just fried in some oil and butter. Why would you worry about disease or anything? Your eyes and nose will tell you if there's anything wrong. Pheasants have a nice life, living in the countryside, being fed grain by the gamekeeper as a supplement to what they forage. What is wrong with eating them if they are killed by a car as opposed to a gun?

Would choose meat from my local butcher, road kill, supermarket butcher counter, pre packed supermarket meat in that order

Slightly off topic, but every time I see Camilla wearing one of her Fascinators, I think there must be a lot of roadkill to be had around Highgrove House.

This letter made me laugh.. when I was a girl my Dad came home with a rabbit he’d knocked down in the car. My Mum was thrilled to bits and lovingly made a stew. To say it was tougher than boots was an understatement . We decided it had died of old age rather than by Dad’s driving but eventually we discovered it was a hare, not a rabbit. Definitely put me off road kill for life!

I would not fancy eating roadkill because I would not know if animal had died from a disease. I prefer a quick trip to Morrisons for meat.

I'm been vegetarian for 30ish years but would like to say that I respect your personal values Iam64 - such a shame that some veggies/vegans resort to what amounts to bullying. I was brought up in a village and rabbit pie was often on the menu - not enough cars about in the 50's to produce much road kill.
Often wonder what the legal position is with regards to badger roadkill, imagine it would be rather like eating dog. I find it so distressing to see so many on the roadside.

About 5 years ago, when driving to our granddaughter's wedding, as we rounded a corner, a pheasant threw himself at the car bonnet. As we couldn't safely stop, we drove on. I joked about taking it home, but didn't realise that it would have been an illegal act. Perhaps a following motorist benefitted?

I don't but I am happy to give it to my animals who are raw fed.

Driving through the Angus glens a week or two ago we spotted lots of pheasants but didn't hit any. I realised at the time that there was virtually no roadkill.
A few years ago driving around North Wales we were surprised at just how many dead beasts were lying around!
So do we conclude that Scottish animals have better road sense than their Welsh cousins?

Mcem absolutely not! I'm in rural Scotland and our local roads are currently littered with dead pheasant. It's mating season and the males (you rarely see dead females) must be sex-crazed because they don't seem to look before crossing the road at this time of year.

I also witnessed the aftermath of a deer collision a couple of weeks ago. It was so sad to see a beautiful creature lying dead in the road. It's shocking for humans, too - my daughter's friend was killed when she collided with a deer and her car subsequently hit a tree.

If you have killed it; pick it up you know it's fresh. What's the difference between buying a pheasant from a butcher or one you've killed? I'm mystified by people saying they might be diseased?

It's illegal for the 'killer' to pick it up, Grannysyb, as a number of people have said.

Why are people worried about disease? How many pheasant diseases are transmissible to humans? None that I know of! If you have eyes and a nose you can see if the meat is diseased. These animals just died because they didn't learn their Green Cross Code!

I haven't and don't think I could. I'm not a veggie but I eat very little meat. In my younger days when I had the health to go cycling there'd be quite a few run-over animals in the roadside in the countryside but I don't think any of our gang bothered to pick anything up for tea.

If you've hit a pheasant and there's nobody behind you, pull over then pick it up if it's not badly damaged.

Who on earth is going to report you?

Leave the road kill for the foxes. They need it more than you. Every day is a life or death struggle to survive as they can't go shopping in Tesco.

You can't take roadkill if you're the one that killed it! Except for swans which have to be offered to the Crown. Probably devised to stop you aiming your car! As long as I was in the car behind, I wouldn't have a problem!

I would never feed a fox! You should see what they do to hens and even lambs. They don't just take the one to eat it is sheer blood lust and they kill/destroy whatever they can get hold of and then just leave it. That is why they are classed as vermin.

Foxes are not classed as vermin by DEFRA.

Yes, they do cause pandemonium when they get into hen coops etc but that's the fault of the hen-keeper for not securing their premises. For a fox to have access to a full hen coop is like putting a child into a sweetie shop - of course they're going to make the most of the opportunity. Foxes are opportunistic feeders and their instinct tells them to kill the prey in front of them - they can't count or reason hence the body count.

I wouldn't eat roadkill in any circumstances, too worried about what disease the animal could be carrying!