hey,
i’m wondering how people here judge roadkill as safe to eat?
i just skinned and (half) butchered a deer i found today. doesn’t seem that old, but i’d like some advice. the other roadkill i’ve eaten hadn’t been dead very long - a few hours or so.
thanks.
Did you pull on the hair, and it came out really loose and easily?
Does it smell? Have funny colors?
If looks good, smells good, didn’t release a big gas bubble when you cut through the muscle into the belly, well, I’d eat it. I might cook it pretty thoroughly, but I’d eat it.
yeah, i ate some last night - it’s good. it seemed pretty fresh to me - eyes intact, hair was pretty solid, generally not too rank, only a couple maggots.
Once I found a fully intaked coyote in the woods and it sensed fresh enough to eat and make tools out of but I didn’t know where to begin because lack of skill on my behave, but now because of of experience and this thread if I get so lucky again again I have a strong feeling that I knowl what to do. Thanks. Good thread.
Aw I bet you wish you had taken that! I feel like I always used to see road kill before I knew what to do with it. Now that I am always looking for it, It seems less common, or at least the fresh ones do.
It’s odd, though I do live in a city, with foxes and squirrels and all sorts of other critters I’ve seen as road kill in the past,and I do live in a city that is quite close to the mountains,now that I have an interest in finding fresh roadkill,though I’m not sure I know exactly what to do with it,I don’t see it so much anymore.The whole thing of hiding in plain site I guess.
here’s the kicker:
I was a Vegan until quite recently.
Now, though I’ve only really eaten honey (as far as non vegan food) since I made a decision to look to other forms of sustinenece. My change of heart and diet is based partly on looking at things on a larger scale:
Not only are many food sources for vegans based on Civ (thanks 'Scout)
but it also takes large processing and resources to transport food stuffs sometimes thousands of miles,resources I don’t need to be wasted on my food.
My thoughts on this lead me to a conclusion that i should look into a diet that is for the most part, far more locally sustainable.
What this means to me is (until I become much much better and identifying and foraging/gathering/hunting) getting food from local farmers, like at a farmers market.
So the meat part of things for me is this right now: I don’t want to eat meat that comes from a store.
I don’t see that really supporting the local bioregion,and I don’t feel right about just going and buying meat from some factory farm, from some chain store.So, aside from traveling somewhat a good distance by car to go fishing, or get a permit and go hunting with family next year, it seems to me the options left might be small traps or roadkill…I have heard the Paleo Diet mentioned here and there, so my question on that is, if you eat a Paleo Diet, do you hunt and gather most of your own foods, mainly the animal part of the diet or still resorting to buying cuts of meat from a store???
I am hoping to enjoy some pheasant tomorrow that my mother-in-law killed, I don’t feel so removed from the process,since she is part of my ‘tribe’.
sorry if any of this is sounding uninformed or Naïve I’m just really trying to find my way with all of this…
another question, do squirrels generally carrying anything like rabies?
The only time I ate paleo was in NYC, and I bought my meat from a store. But if you can get ahold of game or range-fed meat, then you will likely do better on the paleo diet, as you are getting better-balanced fats, plus the animals’ better health translates into better nutrition for your body.
any mammal can have rabies. skunks have the highest occurrence of rabies. I have read that squirrels are very rarely infected with rabies. Mange is the most common problem, you’ve probably seen this in a squirrel before. It looks so nasty you wouldn’t think of eating it. Tularemia can be a problem with squirrels too- this shows up as white dots on the liver.
I’ve been told to check dead animals for signs of fleas and ticks. If they haven’t vacated the premises looking for another host, it’s probably only a few hours dead. Problem is you can become the new host as the animal cools.
In my area rabies can be a problem. Another is armadillos can carry leposy, which sucks because I’ve heard they are really tasty. Hoover hogs were what poor folks called them during the Depression.
[quote=“SuburbanCowboy, post:10, topic:227”]I’ve been told to check dead animals for signs of fleas and ticks. If they haven’t vacated the premises looking for another host, it’s probably only a few hours dead. Problem is you can become the new host as the animal cools.
In my area rabies can be a problem. Another is armadillos can carry leposy, which sucks because I’ve heard they are really tasty. Hoover hogs were what poor folks called them during the Depression.[/quote]
I’ve also heard that armadillos carry leprosy.
Hoover hogs? That’s awesome. That poor, stupid Herbert got blamed for everything. Serves him right for making silly promises about chickens and garages.
Hmmm. Seems like rabbits can carry it too. Although ArmadilloOnline! indicates that you can kill the bacteria by cooking it well.
My brothers up in Bow WA are always scoring roadkill deer. Initially we judged it as fresh enough based on wether or not the eyes were still moist, I still go by that and the look of the meat, but as they get more and more experience they are eating things that I probably wouldn’t. They still haven’t gotten sick, and some of that meat is strait up green and smells like shit.
Hey Tsuchi,
Another option could be to (maybe go in with some friends?) buy a local, free range, grass fed cow or goat (alive) from a farm and kill, skin butcher it yourself. One animal like that would have enough meat for a looooooong time. If you’ve got a freezer big enough, or a lot of space and time to dry the meats out.
that is an idea…
I still have a good amount of Pheasant in the freezer,
but I’m not too sure what I’ll do after that.
We still have alot of veggie protein sources in the house…
I’d really like to start getting my wife and I away from wheat and wheat by products as soon as possible as well.
agreed–i find that i feel much more clear and powerful in mind and body when i don’t eat grains.
you need one big ass freezer for a cow–i had to turn down a quarter cow once for lack of freezer space, and didn’t consider the drying option at the time. but a split between enough people would work, you’d get a large hide, and all the splitters could share the work/learn the brain-tan bit. . . i think i know some farms that would sell a whole animal. maybe a novice butcher could start with a goat.
i wonder about killing the animal, this scenario differs from hunting a bit. i have no experience with hunting myself.
i’ve eaten green meat before. it was delicious.
the hair pull test is pretty reliable. i pull the belly hair cause thats where the skin is thinnest and rot is likely to show up there first.
i tend to only eat roadkill that i find earlier in the day. it gets hot where i live and anything after noon has usually started funk a bit this time of year.
also, if the organs burst on impact there can be a lot of nasty stuff marinating the meat, the hide is usually still good though.
i found this one last week at about 5 pm. she’d been out for about 11 hours. i was on the road that morning and saw nothing. (by the way, this is in new hampshire, i am here for a month or so). it was a cool, cloudy day with lots of rain. rshe had been hit on her left rump and under the hide the bruising was massive. it was really clean skinning her until i got to the bruise. she spilled about a gallon or so of blood, some on my camera, when i pulled the hide off.
i took the sinew and the backstraps and the hide. the meat was good and the hide is salted right now. going to tan it tomorrow or the next day.
I passed by some roadkill raccoon this evening. Biked back but the sun was setting, couldn’t tell if I actually saw a flea or not, but bagged it nonetheless. Got home, it’s dark out, the porch light does not work (kinda hoping to skin it on the table, outside). Bring it up to my room to the closet (it’s a big closet), set down some paper grocery bags. Opened the first bag the raccoon is inside, notice a definite funk coming out, don’t notice any fleas or nothing, and feel it might be best to not actually try this my first skinning of an animal in my room (in my room, wtf?) with such signs. It truly smelled to me quite foul, something not noticed when bagging it initially.
What’d you have done? Think it was just fear on my behalf of doing this for the first time and I’m just trying to justify it? what?
pulled the hair and looked at the eyes. if it’s not rotting i would take the hide, and if it was up to slightly post-rigamortis i would definetly eat the meat. i would probably eat it past that point as well.
Lots of animals stink of pretty quickly. If it’s the sorta gag inducing stink, that’s a bit too far gone, but if it’s just strong but bearable stink of animal+death, doesn’t hurt to give it a try. Infact I have tried with even the gag inducing ones, it was wretched, and I didn’t finish, but I was happy that at least I gave it a shot.
