In the year 2012, according to the state Department
of Transportation statistics, motorists in Montana struck and killed something
near 5000 whitetail deer and 2000 mule deer.
A couple hundred elk, 28 moose, 39 black bears, 5 grizzly bears, and 6
mountain lions also perished as result of encounters with automobiles on
Montana highways and roads.
Following the legislated passage and implementation
of a 2013 law (including an online permitting process, after the fact), Montana
residents may now drag home to grill and eat some of the critters they have
accidentally harvested with the grill of their car or truck.
This law actually makes sense to me.
Obviously, not everyone will be interested in taking
a deer or elk they smacked with their rig, but for those inclined to do so, why
not allow them that?
Naturally, a few provisions appear in the law to
keep the crazies among the population from using the law as a means to
transform road trips into “road hunting” adventures where the would-be hunter might
purposely use their vehicle as a weapon for harvesting some of the more valuable
and difficult-to-permit species found in Montana. To that end, the 2013 roadkill law will allow
a person to harvest only deer, elk, antelope, and moose after running them over. The more exotic critters such as cats, bears,
and sheep cannot be taken.
The idea of purposely swerving to strike something as
large as a moose or elk ranges on a scale from strange to suicidal in my
estimation, but you cannot underestimate the intelligence of some people,
especially some of my more immediate beer-drinking relatives with big trucks.
A couple of my electrician friends are also a bit
suspect.
--Mitchell Hegman
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