TheInsider
Bad news for Montana’s (dead) road hogs THE Telegraph reports that Montana has become the first US state to allow drivers to cook and serve carrion picked up from road accidents under a “you kill it, you grill it” law. Legislators overwhelmingly passed a bill allowing locals to salvage meat from the carcasses of wild animals killed in road accidents.
When signed into law by the governor, Montana could become “the ultimate drive-through destination for adventurous foodies”, the Huffington Post website noted.
Steve Lavin, the legislator who introduced the bill, said that the idea came to him as he drove the open highways of the predominantly rural state and started to count the carcasses lining the road.
“It really is a sin to waste a good meat,” said Larry Jent, a state senator who supports the legislation.
All wild animals were included in the initial draft. But amid fears that there would be an incentive for motorists to hit sheep, bears and bobcats, whose parts have financial value, Lavin limited the legislation to deer, elk, moose and antelope.
The Montana department of fish, wildlife and parks, which would have to oversee the new rules, has identified dangers if the meat has spoiled or the animal carried a disease. But in a Western state where the outdoors tradition is strong, such concerns carry little weight.
The Insider thinks this is an excellent move on Montana’s part and roadkill ragout may be the smartest way to ensure sustainable protein in an embattled economy.
Land of unmilked cows ACCORDING to the South African Revenue Service, the number of registered taxpayers is 13.7-million — up by 132% since 2010. Yet only about 5-million are liable to file a tax return because they have reached the required tax threshold, meaning they earn enough to pay personal income tax.
As someone remarked to the Insider’s colleague, although there may be many more cows in the stable, most are not producing any milk for the farmer.
Hold on to your hair A COLLEAGUE of the Insider finds it unsporting that so many tickets to the HoliOne colour festival last weekend were sold by scalpers for ridiculous amounts of money. The festival was held in accordance with a Hindu celebration to mark the beginning of spring in India. The event was attended by plenty of non- Hindus, and people dressed in white threw coloured powder at one another. This is all very hippiehippie-shake. What isn’t is that people bought tickets from others for thousands of rand. It cost about R300 to get in and was sold out very quickly. Yet would-be hippies sold tickets for up to R2,000 each on Gumtree and other websites. The practice of scalping is not really in the spirit of bunny rabbits, candy clouds, hippiness, or ending materialism, now is it?