Quote:Road to table: Wyoming’s got a new app for claiming roadkill

Quote:LANDER, Wyo. (AP) — The aroma of sizzling meat in melted butter wafts from a cast iron pan while Jaden Bales shows his favorite way to cook up the best steak cuts from a big game animal.


The deep red backstrap pieces, similar to filet mignon of beef, are organic and could hardly be more local.

They’re from a mule deer hit by a car just down the road from Bales’ rustic home in a cottonwood grove beneath the craggy Wind River Range.

Bales was able to claim the deer thanks to a new state of Wyoming mobile app that’s helping get the meat from animals killed in fender benders from road to table and in the process making roads safer for critters.

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.

The doe was crossing U.S. 287 south of Lander early on the morning of Presidents Day just as Marta Casey was headed out in her Subaru to go snowboarding.

She hadn’t been snowboarding in years. A world traveler who’d only settled in Wyoming a year ago, little did she know she was in for a whole new experience in rural living.

“I tried to slow down and get around it,” said Casey. “It was very ... yeah.”

After a Wyoming Highway Patrol trooper took a report and promised to shoot the injured deer, Casey was a couple runs into snowboarding when she remembered the app she heard about from Bales, whom she had just recently met.


She alerted Bales, who soon found the doe and used the app to claim it by entering the species and verifying that it wasn’t killed illegally.

Next thing Casey knew, Bales had hauled the doe home in his pickup truck and Casey was helping cut it up so they could hang the quarters in Bales’ garage.


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.

Another purpose is to help people follow the rules.

For safety reasons, roadkill in Wyoming may not be collected after dark, along interstate highways or in construction zones.


National parks, such as Yellowstone and Grand Teton, also are off-limits for roadkill retrieval.


Unlike in other states such as Alaska, roadkill meat in Wyoming can’t be donated to anybody, including charities.

The whole carcass must be retrieved, not just the antlers or hide. In Oregon, which allows people to claim roadkill with an online form, people must surrender the head and antlers to wildlife authorities within five days but in Wyoming the whole animal is fair game.
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(03-15-2022, 09:25 PM)ABNARTY Wrote: A lot of states have that law but I never heard of the "app" to claim it. Not a bad idea. 

Where I live, I just take 'em. If a deer gets hit by a car and flops over on my property, that is a gift from God. The Sheriff does not need to be bothered with it. 

My cousin in Colorado has some insane laws. You have to call the Fish and Wildlife to come out and "assess" the situation. They will contact the local animal control agent to come handle the dead deer or whatever. Cost is $1600+. If they find you have mice on your property, they will charge you a few hundred more to "take care of" your mice problem. She lives in the woods up in the mountains. Of course there are going to be mice. Where aren't there mice?

(03-15-2022, 10:23 PM)Ninurta Wrote:

(03-15-2022, 09:25 PM)ABNARTY Wrote: A lot of states have that law but I never heard of the "app" to claim it. Not a bad idea. 

Where I live, I just take 'em. If a deer gets hit by a car and flops over on my property, that is a gift from God. The Sheriff does not need to be bothered with it. 

My cousin in Colorado has some insane laws. You have to call the Fish and Wildlife to come out and "assess" the situation. They will contact the local animal control agent to come handle the dead deer or whatever. Cost is $1600+. If they find you have mice on your property, they will charge you a few hundred more to "take care of" your mice problem. She lives in the woods up in the mountains. Of course there are going to be mice. Where aren't there mice?

That's insane. They charge YOU 1600 bucks to haul away something they should be letting you put in your freezer? And forced mice removal? I had a mouse just this morning outside playing on my deck! Little bastards are everywhere! Ain't no wonder my nephew hauled ass out of Colorado and moved to Alaska!

A few years ago, when my son was just a baby, we lived in a fairly rural area of NC near a rich folks' housing development. One night, I heard a horrific crash and looked out the window just in time to see a pickup truck careening away. I went out to see what had happened, and sure enough there was a deer accompanied by several truck parts beside the road. The deer was still alive but immobile, so I went back inside and got my rifle to put it out of it's misery, but then thought better of it - they might have arrested me for "hunting out of season". Fish and Game are a bunch of tight asses like that. So I called the sheriff's department to report it, and they sent a State Trooper out to finish it off. By the time he got there, however, it had already expired. So he asked me if I wanted it, and I said hell yeah, so he wrote me out a permission slip to have an out of season deer in my freezer.

More recently, in the fall of 2016 I think, I was living in Buchanan County VA. Bow season was in, and some dumbass shot a doe with a crossbow on the hillside above my house, but she got away. The bolt severed her spine, so she had to drag herself through my yard using just her front legs. The asswipe that shot her either didn't follow up, or was afraid to come into my yard after her, knowing he wasn't supposed to be hunting my place anyhow. So she made it to the ditch, and created a commotion with the cars going up and down the road. same thing - I wasn't going to shoot her and get accused of rifle hunting in bow season, so one of the guys there called the sheriff's department, who sent a deputy out, and the deputy shot her with his service sidearm. He also asked if anyone wanted her, and one of the guys piped up and said he did, so me and the deputy helped him load her up into his truck bed, no permission slips required. I couldn't eat her anyhow - that same doe woke me up every morning grazing in my yard. She was almost a pet.

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(03-16-2022, 02:51 PM)ABNARTY Wrote: Getting the "permission slip" is not a dumb idea. It demonstrates why you have venison in your freezer and never registered a deer killed during the hunting season. 

Don't get me wrong. What I have in my freezer is no one's business, especially the state. However, you nailed it with the Fish and Game types. There is no arguing with them. It's a  waste of breath. They are there to generate revenue and it's time to open your wallet. 

Had a run in this winter with one. The discussion was birdseed falling off the bird feeder where the deer can get at it. That is illegal where I live for some reason. I pointed across the street to a corn field not 200 yards from my bird feeder. He informed me the corn field is "naturally occurring" so it was OK. Naturally occurring corn fields? At that point you know you are at the end of the discussion. Just nod your head and make affirming noises, hopefully he'll leave.

(03-13-2022, 05:09 PM)Minstrel Wrote: What are the buzzards and crows going to eat?

(03-17-2022, 07:49 PM)guohua Wrote:

(03-13-2022, 05:09 PM)Minstrel Wrote: What are the buzzards and crows going to eat?

Lost Hikers??
Influencer's with Selfie-Sticks visiting the Grand Canyon!!??

LMBO!  There are plenty of those recently.
Here in MI, you are suppose to call the police when you hit a deer, and generally they will ask you if you want it.   But there are a ton on the side of the road right now.
They keep claiming they aren't picking them up, because of chronic wasting disease, but we haven't had a case of that around here in a few years.

(03-17-2022, 08:48 PM)Chiefsmom Wrote:

(03-17-2022, 07:49 PM)guohua Wrote:

(03-13-2022, 05:09 PM)Minstrel Wrote: What are the buzzards and crows going to eat?

Lost Hikers??
Influencer's with Selfie-Sticks visiting the Grand Canyon!!??

LMBO!  There are plenty of those recently.
Here in MI, you are suppose to call the police when you hit a deer, and generally they will ask you if you want it.   But there are a ton on the side of the road right now.
They keep claiming they aren't picking them up, because of chronic wasting disease, but we haven't had a case of that around here in a few years.