Roadkill could become legal to eat in California

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A proposed California state law would make it legal for residents to eat roadkill. Senate bill 395 would allow people who accidentally hit and kill wild animals on California roads to recover the edible portions.

"You're gonna get a lot of loss, so there's not much youre gonna get out of the animal after its been hit like that," butcher Ian Higgs told KOVR. The trauma from most deadly collisions makes the meat go bad, he says. "You can't eat dirt, you know and the thing is when it gets hit that hard, you're gonna have a lot of tough meat."

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California is following more than 20 other states that have already made eating roadkill legal.

UC Davis has maintained a website documenting roadkill incidents across California. In 10 years, the Roadkill Observation System has recorded 60,000 cases of roadkill collisions, most with deer.

If passed, the "You kill it, you grill it" law would go into effect on Jan. 1, 2021.

According to the Pennsylvania Game Commission, road-killed deer should be reported to the regional office that serves the county where the animal was killed.

CNN/KOVR