The Changing Face of Roadkill

When I first started collecting roadkill it was generally not something you would talk about.  Most people would find it slightly distasteful.  The thought that you had scraped your dinner off of a road is probably enough to put most people off.  That is mainly due to the fact we have become accustomed to our food being virtually sterile and hygienically wrapped in plastic.  Thankfully, that was never me.  Many decades ago I used to be a police officer and during my service, I got posted to a rural station where I was the only woman.  I was in my mid-twenties and the lads thought they would test me to see how well I would fit in.  A couple of my colleagues shot for a hobby and one shift I was presented with a brace of pheasants.  This was not meant as a genuine gift, believe me.  They wanted to see if I would squirm at the idea of cleaning them.  I accepted them with glee.  I could remember as a small child seeing my dad pluck and clean a turkey for Christmas lunch, and the smell, which made me real at the time, meant the memory stayed with me.  I knew I could do this and I did.  Not deterred they tried again, this time presenting me with a roadkilled rabbit.  This felt a little different, it wasn't a bird.  We didn't have the internet then to tell me how to deal with this but I decided the principle for dealing with a rabbit would be much the same as a pheasant so took it home, skinned and cooked it.  From then on I was accepted and I've eaten roadkill, when available, ever since.

Thirty years on and times are changing.  Roadkill is making the press.  Suddenly this food source has gone from a guilty secret to something to be proud of.  It's an ethical way to eat meat, even a vegan couldn't object so long as you didn't deliberately run the animal over yourself.  It's also using something that would otherwise mainly go to waste.  OK, so there are a few scavengers that will eat some but most just gets pounded into the tarmac and indeed, by removing the kill, you are helping to prevent such scavengers becoming the next victims by being run over themselves.  It's totally legal provided you were not the one that ran it over.

So far I have collected and eaten Pheasants, rabbits, wood pigeons, fallow deer, muntjac, duck and partridge and I am seriously considering adding badger to the list next time I come across a fresh one.