"Even if the crash is bloody and causes clotting, about 300-400 pounds of burger meat can be salvaged. Many churches, food banks and non-profits are on a call list. When a moose fatality is reported, they call folks on the list and are given an hour or so to harvest the meat. Folks consider it a privilege when it’s their turn on the list."
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Moose is among my favorites. Makes an excellent roast.
Moose is among my favorites. Makes an excellent roast.
My parents live on a small island in Maine that became overrun by deer a while back. After several years of bitter argument the gardeners faced down the deer whisperers and the community hired a sharpshooter to cull the herd.
I encouraged my parents to put their names in for a deer, but the city was already on top of the issue. The venison went to the local food pantry, which was pretty cool, in my opinion.
100% sane, reasonable practice. Good an all of them. I'd love some rack of moose shoulder
A friend of mine was driving in rural Upstate NY one night and hit a deer. Right behind her was a pickup truck filled with Colgate University frat members. The pulled over and said "Are you okay, ma'am?" My friend said "Yeah, I'm okay". Then they said "You want that deer?" She said "No." They said "Can we have it?" She said "Yes". So they tossed the deer into the back of the truck and drove away. And the whole fraternity ate well, I'm sure.
The problem with moose, and really elk, is their size. Think about the effect of hitting a moose at 60 mph. Sure, the moose is likely dead, but you have a chance at that too.
The story about having to kill the baby pre-venison (aka Bambi) by strangling it may be why a lot of people carry firearms in their vehicles in rural America. First heard that people did this back in high school from a neighbor in western suburban Denver area. And, plenty of deer are killed on the roads here in NW MT. In town, of course, the police or sheriff's deputies will do the deed, but the county is 150 or so miles long, and by the time they could respond in much of that, a hit deer would be long dead. More dangerous here, maybe, are the bighorn sheep that come down to the highway maybe 10 miles east of town. Some 300 were killed over previous decade until they dropped speed limit from 70 to maybe 55 through there.
I think that giving road kill away for some public benefit is fairly widespread across the country. Know that in an NE state, state police would pick up at least one dead deer per night per vehicle n some beats, all given to charity, if the meet hadn't already gone bad.
One of these state police told a story about one night where he and his partner had just thrown the deer in the trunk. The other guy took off his gloves, and they shook hands on a job well done - and then realized that the first guy had never worn gloves, and freaked - the first officer grew up hunting deer, while the second guy was from the inner city and had never hunted. It was considered a pretty good prank around the police barracks.
sure, moose (and elk) are better than deer. In my estimation, a lot better, but as I pointed out earlier, with that much better taste comes a much higher chance at the people in the vehicle hitting them dying too.
I had 2 friends returning from fishing who saw a recently killed deer in the middle of the road. Being recyclers they placed deer on top of the station wagon. They took deer to one man's home and hung it on the swing set to skin it. Neighbor across the alley called 911 and said a man was being flayed alive. His wife said she had never seen so many flashing lights-Police, fire, rescues and the game warden. They were informed of their mistake and let go. Game warden took deer to be butchered and given to the poor.
Henry,
What a bizarre story! Are we to believe that Maine, of all places, has no competent hunters who would do the job for free? Nay, who would actually contribute to the state larder by paying for extra deer tags?
Back when I worked in Newfoundland the greatest number automobile accidents were moose encounters. Because of their long legs they are more likely to wind up in the front seat with you. Even if you drive a pickup truck. The second most frequent was driving off the road and into the ocean. Third or fourth was hitting a horse.
It's what he would have wanted.
@Kirk -- It's a pretty settled island. The sharpshooter set up salt licks and used a tree stand so he was always firing down.
The story I heard was that a local shrink was coming home in his MG and hit a deer. He wondered what to do about it and ended up putting the thing in his passenger seat and driving home. He went inside to get his gloves and such to transport the animal only to find the cloth top of his convertible destroyed and the deer long gone.
So step one, make sure it is dead.
Trey
My family was on the call list... My book of short stories "Alaskan road rules" has the story of that experience
Carving up a moose that we didn't shoot
Murphy Daley
And when a butcher who's not familiar with moose does the butchering, he marks the parts he doesn't know "Mooselaneous".
In all serious, if you've ever noticed how big the front roof supports are on Saabs/Volvos, it's due to moose. With their long, spindly legs, the body tends to land somewhere around the front of the roof of the car, and so to pass the front roof supports must be strong.
Mr. Parker,
Maine does have a moose hunt every fall. Tags are awarded by lottery and they are hard to come by.
Car/moose collisions are often fatal for people because the grill of the car hits the moose in the knees, and the 700-lb body goes through the windshield.
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