California

'Are You Going to Eat That?' Road Kill Now Legal to Eat in California

Gov. Newsom signed a bill that makes eating roadkill legal

Hungry? Roadkill maybe for dinner.

In a flurry of bill signings last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 395 into law, making it legal to salvage and eat animals accidentally hit by drivers. 

The bill's stated intent was to "make available to Californians tens of thousands of pounds of a healthy, wild, big game food source that currently is wasted each year following wildlife-vehicle collisions." 

The so-called "Roadkill Bill" authorizes the creation of a program that designates three regions that have "high wildlife vehicle collisions" as locations where drivers can salvage specific types of roadkill. 

Some of the eligible roadkill include deer and wild pig. 

Drivers would need a permit to salvage the roadkill, and the program won't go into effect until 2022. The state hopes to collect data on where the roadkill accidents often occur in order to add additional roadway defense and wildlife highway over-crossings. 

Sen. Bob Archuleta, D-Pico Rivera, sponsored the bill.

California would be at least the 28th state to pass legislation allowing drivers to harvest roadkill, according to NBC News.

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