Page 16 - IAV Digital Magazine #469

iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
CA 'Roadkill Bill' Would Allow You To
Eat Animals Hit, Killed
By Renee Schiavone, Patc h National Staff
A California law- maker wants to make sure no meat goes to waste, and is proposing a new law that would allow motorists to legally take and consume roadkill— an estimated hun- dreds of thou- sands of pounds of meat each year.
SB 395 would apply to any deer, elk, ante- lope, or wild pig "that has been accidentally killed as a result of a vehicle col- lision on a road- way within California."
State Sen. Bob Archuleta, (D- Pico Rivera), introduced the bill on Feb. 20. Though it's not currently illegal to accidentally
strike and kill an animal with a motor vehicle, it is indeed against Fish and Game Code to salvage the ani- mal.
"This bill would require the Department of Fish and Wildlife to adopt rules
and regulations for the issuance of wildlife sal- vage permits through a user- friendly web portal to per- sons desiring to recover, pos- sess, use, or transport, for purposes of sal- vaging wild game meat for
human con- sumption of, any deer, elk, ante- lope, or wild pig that has been accidentally killed as a result of a vehicle col- lision on a road- way within California," SB 395 states. "This bill would require that this
permitting process be made available at no cost to the public."
If the bill passes and is signed into law, resi- dents would have 24 hours to apply for their permit after they've brought
the roadkill home. It would also apply to people who stumble upon roadkill left behind by other motorists.
"Each year it is estimated that over 20,000 deer alone are hit by motor vehicles on California's roadways," the bill states. "This translates into hundreds of thousands of pounds of healthy meat that could be utilized to feed those in need."
Several other states currently allow people to harvest meat from the road- way, including Oregon which passes a similar bill in 2017, which went into effect this year.
iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine