Oregon puts roadkill on menu

SALEM, Ore. — Some folks in Oregon might not want to ask, when served an elk burger or a venison steak, where the meat came from.

Under a roadkill bill passed by the state legislature and signed by the governor, motorists who crash into the animals can now harvest the meat to eat.

It’s not as unusual as people might think. About 20 other states also allow people to take meat from animals killed by vehicles. Aficionados say roadkill can be high-quality, grass-fed grub. Washington state began allowing the salvaging of deer and elk carcasses a year ago. Pennsylvania might top the country in road kills, with Oregon wildlife officials telling lawmakers that the eastern state had more than 126,000 vehicle-wildlife accidents in 2015.

Gov. Kate Brown signed Oregon’s bill this month after the Senate and House passed it without a single “nay” vote. But a few Oregonians voiced opposition.

Vivian Kirkpatrick-Pilger, a Republican Party official in mountainous, forested Josephine County, told legislators that people have been salvaging roadkill meat in Oregon for years — since vehicles and animals have been colliding — and they’ve never needed a law or permit to do it.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife said that before the new law, the only people allowed to keep roadkill were licensed furtakers, and no one — not even licensed hunters — could keep game animals found as roadkill. The rules are aimed at discouraging people from hitting a game animal with their vehicle to take the meat or antlers.

“It’s not a legal method of hunting,” the department’s website says.