Kill It And Grill It? Roadkill Could Become Legal To Eat

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Get ready to break out your recipes for roadkill. Eating wild animals killed by a car could soon become legal in California.

State Senator Bob Archuleta introduced a so-called "you kill it, you grill it" bill at the Capitol this week.

The bill reads, "each year it is estimated that over 20,000 deer alone are hit by motor vehicles on California roadways. This translates into hundreds of thousands of pounds of healthy meat that could be utilized to feed those in need."

It's a recipe for unusual dinnertime conversation. Ian Higgs is a custom butcher at Roseville Meat Company.

RELATED: Worst Roadkill Areas In Sacramento Region

Roseville Meat Company custom butcher Ian Higgs says roadkill deer doesn't have much useable meat.

"You're gonna get a lot of loss, so there's not much you're gonna get out of the animal after it's been hit like that," Higgs said.

Higgs has worked on his butcher craft, harvesting meat, for over a decade.

"It's definitely an art," Higgs said.

He says you can't harvest much edible meat from roadkill. The trauma from most deadly collisions makes the meat go bad.

ALSO: Bill Would Make Priests Report Abuse Revealed In Confessions

"You can't eat dirt, you know, and the thing is when it gets hit that hard, you're gonna have a lot of tough meat," Higgs said.

California is following more than 20 other states that have already made eating roadkill legal.

UC Davis has maintains a website documenting roadkill incidents across California.

In 10 years, the California Roadkill Observation System has recorded 60,000 cases of roadkill collisions, mostly with deer.