Deer hit by cars

[Ean76]

I heard recently about a deer which was hit by a car and killed. Someone mentioned to me that if/when this happens, the person who struck the deer cannot take it away for purposes of eating etc but other road users (even the next car along) can take them away.

 

Is that true? Obviously these type of road incidents need to be reported to the police within 24 hrs etc and they can often be near fatal for the driver as deer are not exactly small and can do considerable damage to a car travelling at 50, let alone 70mph.

 

I am not a stalker and don't even posses a FAC but am just wondering if that is true or not.

 

Ta.

[berthaboo]

yes this is true sure i can remember reading this in one of the mags but if i remember right its deer and game birds too

[cubix]

No it's not true, the deer becomes the property of whoever owns the place it dies - in the case of a road that will most likely be the local authorty.

[dodeer]

Sad but true, we get a few local rouges who drive round most days in the winter looking for road causulties and take them to gamedealers!

The dealers take em unless they are too badly smashed up, not sure what they pay for them thoough.

[Bleeh]

It is true.

 

This is basicly to stop people smashing into deer and taking them.

 

You do get Gippo's that bait roads, and then smash into the deer that come to feed on them. - This law dosn't do an awful lot to stop them, but it helps.

[libs]

If I stoved my car into a beastie the least I would want in return would be a nice carcass to take home, a sort of compensation if you will.

[ODG]

I'm pretty sure that this has been discussed many times on many different forums, as well as during the DSC1 course. Deer, unless farmed, are not anyones property until dead, and then they are the property of the landowner where they drop. It is therefore illegal to remove a carcass. Additionally, if a deer is hit and not killed outright, a vet is often called to delier a fatal injection - the drugs will end up in the meat and make it unsafe to eat, so removing a carcass that you find at the side of the road could not just be illegal, but also damaging to your health...

 

This, of course, does not stop the local scrotes from driving round attempting to reduce the local deer population themselves, or just collect roadkill and try to pass it on to some other poor unsuspecting person / unscrupulous butcher etc.

[libs]

Think that injured deer would be shot rather than injected.

 

If it can take up to 20ccs to take down a German Shepard, I think you would need a bucket of the gear for even a small deer.

[nipper]

Nearly all deer hit by cars are not fit to eat anyway !

Full of adrenalin ,not bled , stomach burst , bruising , broken bones ,no idea how long its been dead etc etc etc

All in all not a very good prospect for a decent meal .

 

Did try it once ! Never again .

[Tommo]

Being a stalker, and seeing a few RTA's with deer involved (one of my own with a Munty l must add), they will be the property of the LA, if its crawled off to private land, whether dead or not the Police will use the cheaper option in must cases which will be to have it shot / put down by a registered local stalker. Once this is done then permission is sort from that lands owner (and Police give notification of accident/incident) and the animal is removed (unless special circumstances i.e. MOD / Protected ground) and it will be usually disposed by the LA (rarely an animal will be fit for consumption).

 

Some stalker friends have been able to take animals away before now after such an incident by permission of Police/Land owner- bit its very rare...

 

I thought about being on the local call out list, but to be honest l dont fancy being called out to a possible fatal RTA and then having to track an injured animal to have to put it out of its misery, of which could be in a right state....

 

****** are a problem all over for running them over for selling/eating themselves (a friend who stalks south of Oxford deals with it weekly/finds animals l should say)

 

T

[Quist]

The meat will be awfull if its not been gralloched and there will likely be large blood clots and bruising at the impact points. You've got to have a strong stomach to eat roadkill.

That and no sense of taste

[lapwing]

"Think that injured deer would be shot rather than injected.

 

If it can take up to 20ccs to take down a German Shepard, I think you would need a bucket of the gear for even a small deer."

 

Not worth the risk. Many vets are called to deer RTA's by well meaning members of the public who are happy to drive rapidly down rural lanes at dusk/dawn but find it easier to salve their conciences with their mobile phone rather than save the creature an hour or so suffering by using a pocket knife (probably dont carry one anyway), wheelbrace, etc to put it out of agony.

 

In my experience of quite a number of roadside callouts the local vet is often the choice of drivers who seem averse to having plod on the scene (breathaliser??). The vet is then in a position of having to attend to animal's welfare with no prospect of payment as the driver has usually become scarce; few of them have FAC nowadays to even have a bolt gun, let alone have it in the car if they have been called from another job. Drug injection is then their only option especially if Jo Public milling around, and the carcase is then left at the roadside for the Council to maybe collect in a couple of days....

 

I have often wondered why there is no scheme to attach a tag round the neck to say "unfit for human consumption". Presumaby because the less scrupulous would then remove it

[starlight32]

Up my way it is often the the shooter local to the land which is called, and in most cases it tends to be the gamekeeper.

 

I had an interesting call from a member of the RSPCA a while ago after they had contacted the landowner adjacent to the roadside it was hit on. He simply passed on my details as being his 'shooter'

 

I politely declined, as I feel the police should deal with these type of incidents, if they were appropriately trained they could easily carry a bolt gun on a squad car.

[arjimlad]

When I was a lad, my Dad was the only officer in his police station who knew how to gralloch a deer. So, as the constabulary are charged with keeping Her Majesty's highways clear of such obstructions, we would occasionally be called upon to dispose of such obstructions by stewing and eating them. Dad was very careful to select which animals to eat and which to discard, but we had some very tasty public duties to carry out from time to time. And the officer who left said obstruction on our back lawn always got a nice cut too !

 

I seem to recall that the person who hits the deer "reduces it into his possession" from the wild, and can take it away, but if he abandons it, it belongs to the landowner (HM the Queen or the Local Highway Authority).

[al4x]

we also lived on roadkill as kids, my dad as a vet was called out to shoot a fair few, usually ended up hung up in the garage and processed from there. Until the local force had a special who used to be a butcher after that they used to disappear in the back of police cars obviously this was about 20 years ago so i'm sure it doesn't happen now