There you are — on the highway in a hurry. An unexpected sloppy sight can mean that you are not able to plan. The emergency lane’s rotting armadillo would make a delicious stew.
Is it selfish to stop? Do you think it is a Christian decision to leave the car in the hands of the next driver?
Perhaps now, you can feel a little more fair in your claiming of the carcass: There’s a new app for that. At least, that is, if you’re hungry at the wheel in Wyoming.
As reported by The Associated Press, The Suffrage State’s launched a phone app letting drivers put dibs on dashed-line dinner.
State wildlife and highway officials rolled out the app — possibly the first of its kind in the U.S. — this winter when Wyoming joined the 30 or so states that allow people to collect roadkill for food.
To be sure, there’s more than armadillo on the menu:
Wyoming’s new roadkill feature within the state Department of Transportation app helps people quickly claim accidentally killed deer, elk, moose, wild bison or wild turkey after documenting the animal and reviewing the rules for collecting roadkill to eat.
Hopefully, the program’s prohibitions will help prevent accidents: Unarmed highway hunters are disallowed from shoveling corpses into their cars at night.
And while the freeway’s a free-for-all, national parks are off-limits.
Additional details:
Unlike in other states such as Alaska, roadkill meat in Wyoming can’t be donated to anybody, including charities.
It is necessary to retrieve all parts of the carcass. Oregon allows roadkill claims online. However, the Oregon Wildlife Department requires that people surrender their head and antlers within 5 days. Wyoming however, allows the entire animal to be sold as fair game.
Besides cleaning up the roads and flavorfully filling your favorite soufflé, the program will improve protection for quadrupeds:
Geotagging roadkill and recording the species with the app will allow users to contribute data to Wyoming wildlife biologists.
It would be fantastic to reduce this number. According to officials, at least 6,000 animals are annually annihilated on Wyoming’s roadsides.
Mule deer are the most persistently pummeled.
[S]Named for their mule-like ears, they live in the western part of North America. They generally weigh more than whitetail deer across the continent.
Wyoming is home to about 400,000 mule deer, or roughly two for every three of the state’s human residents. Although they’re not rare and are still enthusiastically hunted, drought and diminishing habitat have played roles in reducing Wyoming mule numbers by almost 30% in the past 30 years.
Per Game and Fish Department spokesperson Sara DiRienzo, “Mule deer already are struggling because of a number of factors. Roadkill collisions don’t help that.”
Other common critters caught insufficiently looking out for cars: coyotes, eagles and skunks, who are often trying to eat what was already 86’d.
Back to you hankering for a hunk of armadillo, it’s finders keepers:
You don’t have to know the person who struck roadkill to be able to claim it…
But prior to putting on your chef’s hat, you might want to follow the example of roadkill customer Jaden Bales, who recently scooped up a victim for venison:
Bales mailed in a lymph node from the animal to be tested for chronic wasting disease, a neurological illness similar to mad cow disease that’s been spreading through U.S. deer populations for decades, and it came back negative.
Marta Casey had unintentionally killed the deer and reported it via the app. Jordan was informed, and they shared the bounty.
Casey hadn’t hunted in her life and only had a handful of wild game meals, but she loved the idea of using the animal to make repairs on her car.
“It’s always been important to me to understand where our food comes from,” Marta made clear.
Now you can do the same.
So if you’re in Wyoming and accidentally make mincemeat of an interstate interloper, just use the app. And tonight, you’ll have good eats on the grill — just as soon as you peel all the animal from the one on your car.
-ALEX
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