New California Law Will Let Drivers Eat Roadkill
By Alex Robinson
on October 22, 2019
Squirrels are good eatin’.
Photography By Benjamin Clapp on Shutterstock
If you live in California, you could soon be allowed to take your roadkill home for dinner.
Last week, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law—called the Wildlife Traffic Safety Act—that will launch pilot programs in three yet-to-be-determined areas, allowing drivers to butcher animals they accidentally hit on roads.
Through the pilot program, anyone looking to harvest a dead animal they hit would report it through a mobile app to receive a “wildlife salvage permit” on the spot.
The US Department of Transportation estimates that American drivers hit up to two million large animals a year. A lot of the meat from those animals goes to waste in states where it’s still illegal to take that meat home. California has joined a long list of more than 25 states that now have some form of laws allowing people to eat roadkill. Of the states that have held out, some have argued that such laws could encourage poachers to claim they simply hit an animal they illegally hunted.
The mobile app for the pilot programs won’t be available until at least 2020, but until then, drivers should contact California’s Department of Fish and Wildlife to obtain their permit. The pilot is set to run until 2029, at which point it could potentially become permanent and statewide if successful.
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I have a Broad Acquaintance with Gavin Newsom. He used to be Major of San Fransisco and Husband to Kimberly Gilfoil, then an Anchor on CourTV.
I’m not exactly sure what to make of this. If you just hit and killed a dear I suppose you might eat it. I do hope hungry people don’t start picking up Road kill that they find on the highway.
Gavin has always been very astute in his judgement, IF a little too Liberal for most American today.
Newsom’s answer to starving citizens: eat roadkill mother fuckers.