"You Have the Right to Remains": Connecticut's Roadkill Law

Connecticut, for all its sprawling growth, is still blessed with some extensive rural areas.  Although just 1 in 8 of us lives in a rural part of Connecticut, we have more rural residents than some western states.  The Connecticut State office of Rural Health recognizes 65 rural communities (out of 169 towns statewide), with fully 1/3 of these located within the area served by the Litchfield Hills Greenprint.

With all this rural land available, many wildlife species are finding suitable habitat where once they were excluded, expanding both their ranges and overall population numbers across the state.  Some of these species, like white-tailed deer, take full advantage of the edge habitat created at the interface between developed lands and open space, in numbers that are at or near their pre-European settlement levels and far in excess of thresholds where they negatively impact habitat.  Others, like black bear, just a few years ago were highly uncommon in the state but their numbers are dramatically increasing today.

Much to the amusement of some but with serious intent, this past legislative session included modifications to the state's so-called "roadkill law" to address the impacts of vehicle collisions with bears and moose as well as deer.   Simply put, in Connecticut if your vehicle strikes and fatally injures one of these animals, once the authorities have attended to the accident scene you are entitled to take the animal home and eat it.  If you do not choose to exercise this right, anyone else who wishes to take possession of the carcass has the right to take it home and eat it.

Vehicle collisions with large animals are no laughing matter.  I once - I kid you not - hit a 16-ft-long African Rock Python, full on, when travelling at high speed in a light pick up truck in Namibia and ended up in a ditch. A wild turkey took out my side view mirror when it decided to fly in front of my car a few years back, but you are approximately 30 times more likely to be injured after colliding with a moose than with a white-tailed deer.  There were over 3,300 deer/vehicle collisions reported in the Nutmeg State in 2000 - modest by Pennsylvania or Michigan standards but still representing a  significant amount of trauma and damage.  In contrast, the first moose collision on record in this state happened in 1995, and there have been fewer than 10 since then.  There have been several motor vehicle collisions with black bears in Connecticut every year since the first record in 1991, and these are probably on the increase today.

Nationwide, an estimated 135,000 deer are killed in collisions with vehicles, resulting in over 100 human fatalities and at least 7,000 injuries.  The economic costs, it should go without saying, are considerable. Nevertheless, it is still highly improbable that a Connecticut motorist will actually be involved in a bear or moose collision, and even less likely that he or she will have the necessary time and skills required to take advantage of the somewhat dubious compensation the law provides of stocking the larder with bear meat and moose jerky after totalling the family car.  These "road culls" are not preventing bear, moose and deer populations from expanding in Connecticut, but higher traffic and further road development in our rural areas will likely mean more collisions with wildlife.

Comments

[Amber]

To assume that someone's just going to go home and eat the life they just took is kind of sick. Though some do this, and I'm not bashing on them, you have to realize there are other things to do with a carcass- For example: taxidermy, or maybe send it somewhere so you only get the fur, and use that for a project or something.

[Carol]

One of the accidents that scares me is if I would hit an animal on the road. I believe this roadkill law is just appropriate to help with the city's costing if they had to be the ones to bury the injured animal.

[GreenmanTim]

Thanks for stopping by, Everett and RK, and for the trackback as well, PM. The urban/wildland interface is of particular interest to me, as a conservation professional and someone who has been on wildfires in this challenging environment. Tennessee was slandered, in my opinion, by those taking cheap shots at its practical approach to animal carcass disposal. I suspect that there are fewer people in Connecticut, with its high population of urban refugees and second home owners, with the skills required to field dress a deer should they come in contact with one via collision than in other states with more intact rural traditions. I have enjoyed game birds after vehicle collisions spitted on a jack handle and roasted out on the southern African veld, and also seen what happens when a half ton Kudu bull thinks it can leap over the headlights of an oncoming vehicle.

[reddykilowatt]

Wow.We passed this same law in Tennessee a few years ago,and Tennessee was the laughing stock of the nation("hillbillies",rubes","Deliverence",etc.).

[Everret Parker]

I've hit several "large game birds" in my state and they have usually wound up on a platter in the table unless they were just too banged up. Upside: no danger of biting a pellet. Downside: a shattered bone or two.

Several years ago I was riding, in a pickup, with a friend who hit a two point buck. Bled him out on the spot and dressed and hung him in my garage. It was winter and the temps were just right. Thank heavens for brush guards. Another friend lost his life when a buck came through his windshield at 65mph. Sometimes you eat the bear. Sometimes the bear eats you.