Road-kill bill: Can RI make better use of animals killed by drivers? Should bounty be shared?

It's a grim scenario that plays out more than a thousand times each year on roads throughout Rhode Island: A deer bounds out of the woods and is hit by a car. It dies on the spot.

What happens next is the subject of legislation before state lawmakers that considers, among other things, who can eat that deer.

Although most drivers probably don't know it, there's a state law governing vehicle-wildlife collisions, or so-called road kill.

If a driver fatally strikes a deer and the collision is big enough to damage the automobile, the driver must tell the state's environmental police about it within 24 hours. After the police investigate the collision, they can turn the carcass over to the driver who hit it – and only the driver who hit it – for personal consumption.

Of course, many drivers don't know what to do with a 200-pound deer carcass even if they like venison or are personally compelled by the desire not to waste nature's bounty.

The bill before lawmakers would allow the state Departmental of Environmental Management to rewrite the rules of road kill and allow the use of an animal carcass by people other than the driver who killed it.

The legislation, which Warwick Democratic Rep. David Bennett introduced on behalf of the DEM, would also expand the law, now limited to deer, to all "wildlife" involved in collisions.

As the suburbs have stretched farther into the countryside while formerly depleted populations rebound due to preservation efforts, collisions between automobiles and animals, such as wild turkeys, bears and bobcats, have become more common.

"We have large animals moving into our state that weren't here before – such as bear – populations coming back, of bobcat," Bennett told members of the House Environment Committee earlier this month. "What DEM would like to do is take those carcasses and distribute them among the poor or shelters."

(The law still refers to collisions that "substantially damage" a vehicle, so encounters with opossums, rodents or other smaller creatures will not trigger a reporting requirement.)

At the same time it expands who can collect collision-produced meat, the bill would also make it easier for drivers to use the carcasses they are already entitled to.

It would allow DEM employees and biologists, not just sworn environmental police officers, to take reports of collisions with large animals and release the carcasses to the public. That is expected to speed up the process of using a carcass – in which time is of the essence – when environmental officers are busy investigating other things.

If passed, the change could help make it feasible to bring home a wild turkey for Thanksgiving dinner without buying one.

Although the New England Chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers is primarily concerned with protecting natural habitat and the wild animals that live there, the group also supports updating the law on wildlife collisions.

The BHA "prefers that the public be afforded the opportunity to utilize the resource to the extent practicable, rather than requiring wildlife be discarded by rule," Mike Woods, chair of the BHA New England Chapter wrote in testimony to lawmakers. "Notwithstanding the current law, a large proportion of wildlife involved in vehicular collisions, especially during colder months, could be processed into useable products if a legal pathway existed for those who might do so."

The DEM, which is seeking the law change, plays down the nutritional upside of the bill and says it is focused on scientific benefits.

"One of the most important things wildlife biologists do is estimate the populations of different species of animals," DEM spokesman Mike Healey said about the bill.

"Although it would be ideal to see and count each individual animal in a population – that is, conduct a census – this is impractical because they’re wild animals; they move from place to place, they hide, they hibernate, and they are often camouflaged and difficult to see in their environment, he said.

"By now requiring the reporting of collisions with other large, non-deer wildlife such as those we’ve mentioned below, Division of Fish and Wildlife biologists will have a whole new data stream to analyze, enabling them to make more accurate population assessments and projections."

According to the DEM's annual Deer, Deer Harvest & Deer Hunter Summary, 1,544 deer were reported killed by automobiles in 2022, a 20% increase from 2021. By comparison, 2,705 deer were taken by hunters.

Most of the time DEM employees are called to investigate a deer strike, they end up taking the carcass to be buried in the Great Swamp.

Even with a law change, the biggest hurdle to donating deer or other wild animals to charity is the cost of processing.

Rhode Island used to have a "Hunters for the Hungry" donation program like those in other states, but the cost of paying processors exceeded the benefit.

Although there are a handful of wild game processors in Rhode Island, it's often a part time business in hunting season and many hunters take personal pride in cleaning their own.

It's not clear exactly where the prohibition on sharing deer carcasses from collisions came from, although some surmise it could have been to prevent people from hitting animals intentionally.

"At the end of the day, there's nothing glamorous about eating wildlife, but oftentimes what might be there is perfectly good and safe food," Woods told The Journal in an interview. "There really wasn't a logical basis that we could come up with for why there are restrictions."

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Proposed RI law would allow expanded use of road kill