14 DAY TRIAL // As reported on several occasions, not wasting food is part and parcel of a green-oriented lifestyle. Apparently, lawmakers in Montana are well aware of this, hence their rolling out a bill saying that people living in this American state must be allowed to consume roadkill whenever they see fit.
The bill has only recently been passed by the state's House of Representatives, whose members are quite convinced that simply throwing away roadkill or disposing of it in some other manner goes against sustainability.
Known as House Bill 247, this piece of legislation is bound to translate into the creation of special permits that would allow individuals to salvage roadkill and eat it.
The animals targeted by this bill are mostly antelope, deer, elk and moose, Daily Mail informs us.
Following its being passed by Montana's House of Representatives, House Bill 247 must be reviewed by the state Senate, whose members must decide whether or not the idea of allowing people to legally feed on roadkill makes sense.
According to the same source, State Representative Steve Lavin, who happens to be a supporter of House Bill 247, commented on this project as follows:
“When people first hear about it — roadkill — some of them think this is a crazy bill, but it’s not. As people know, people hit a lot of animals on roadways, and I mean a ton of them. There’s a lot of good meat being wasted out there.”
Although the bill does make some sense as far as not wasting food is concerned, several environmentalists and conservationists fear that poachers might take advantage of it in order to kill more animals than they would normally be allowed to.
More precisely, they fear that some people might purposely kill various animals and then try to pass the carcasses as roadkill.
“People aren’t going to intentionally hit an elk when it’s going to cost them $1,500 in damages to their vehicle. Nor are poachers going to go through the problems of staging a road kill with the possibility of being caught. If there’s something fishy going on, we’ll catch on pretty quickly,” Steve Lavin reassured these concerned conservationists and environmentalists.