If you hit an animal with your car, it is presently a crime in California to scrape it off the pavement, take it home, and barbeque it. "Unlawful possession of wildlife" can cost you 6 months and $1K. But Ben Christopher of CalMatters reports that legislation under consideration beneath the copper dome would create a partial exception.
While roadkill cuisine may not yet be mainstream, it appears to have joined the ranks of bug eating and dumpster diving as a counter-cultural dietary choice once associated with extreme poverty--but now earning the respect of eco-conscious foodies. As High Country News recently observed, "stereotyped hillbilly eating roadkill has been replaced by an environmentally and food conscientious middle-class urbanite."
Really? De gustibus non est disputandum.
Plus, roadkill is nothing if not free range--to tragic excess.
Undeniably true.
Even so, [Sen. Bob] Archuleta and a coalition of wildlife conservationists and hunting advocates want to make that exception for only a handful of big, meaty animals including deer, elk and wild pigs. (With apologies to squirrel connoisseurs, all other critters are off the menu.)
Damn. I was soooo looking forward to air-fried armadillo.
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