If you find a dead deer in Ohio, you’re more than welcome to reap the bounty of your score if you’d like. There’s nothing like a little venison chili when it’s this cold outside, so if you’re not queasy about dressing the deer yourself, or if you know someone who’ll do it for you, a free deer can be quite the find.
But please, you’re not allowed to start carving the deer on the side of the road. No one wants to see that.
The Hudson Hub Times reports that one lady wasn’t too clear on that last detail:
This article appears in Jan 12-18, 2011.
Hey opportunity knocks and helpful Police…Win win!!!!
What the fuck ? !!! Has everyone forgotten how you get that T-Bone or Whopper ?
Ya cant gut a deer in the dark at night on a rural road ? I’d have my Buck Knife out and be getting ready for marinated deer steaks, kabobs, chili, roasts, burgers and have a good old time eatin.
Hey, dressing the deer where it died basically follows the common sense of nature’s system of “recycling”. There will be other animals that will appreciate the “remains”, especially during the winter season. Just don’t leave it too close to the road. Pitch the remains at least 20-25′ off to the side and away from the road so the appreciative carnivores are not hit by other vehicluar traffic. If you take it home, then what? You gonna throw away the remains? One man’s waste is another animal’s sustenance.
When I lived for a short time in rural Canada, that was common practice when hunting. Dress it where it fell. But I got used to the idea. It made sense.
I think too many are spoiled by the way we get our meat today.
By the way, if she already started dressing the deer, that had to be a messy van when she got home.
In 1998, a rutting buck in late November tried to jump over my little ’85 Honda CRX while I was headed home about 1 AM on I-77. I was the only vehicle on the road and that stupid dumb f**k decided to cross I-77 just as I approached. He tried to jump over my car, but his torso apparently hit my windshield and the impact rolled him partially over the top of the car. I never saw him but I immediately slammed on the brakes when the windshield instantly turn to an opaque crackled sheet of laminated safety glass. As I was stopping, the buck apparently slid off the front of the car into the view of my headlights. It was then, while the front windshield lay over my white knuckles and also in my lap, that I realized I hit a deer. As I watched in amazement, the buck got up and stumble about 10 yrds to the side of the road and dropped to the ground. That was when I realized I was sitting at a complete stop on I-77. I looked in the rearview mirror to see if any cars were coming up behind me. It was then that I also noticed the view out the back hatch glass was unusually clear, Here, I turn around only to see the rear hatch glass deposited into the back hatch area, behind my seat. I guess the buck’s legs slammed into the glass at some point during the impact.
Since I was just before the north bound Rte 82 exit, I headed to the Broadview Hts Police Department to make a report. I made the report and a partolling police car verified by radio that the buck was indeed dead. He mentioned it was a nice symmetrical 8 point buck, maybe 225 lbs. The station officer asked me if I wanted to take it home. I asked how? He said they’d help tie it to the top of my car. I mentioned I had no windshield or hatch glass and by the time I got it home, I’d have a bigger mess to clean up inside the car. So he pulled out a sheet of paper and called the first name at the top of the list to claim “road kill”.
Now mind you this is now about 2 AM on a weeknight. Within 10 minutes max, a guy was at the station to claim the kill. I asked the guy if I could have the rack, since i was thinking of adding it to the nose of my Honda CRX as a trophy for winning the deer/car instant death match. The guy said “NO”, he wanted the whole thing. Today, I’ll bet that 8 point rack is mounted somewhere in his house with an embellished story to go along with it.
In the mean time, the Broadview Hts officer was kind enough to write me an excuse for why I’m driving without a windshield in case I’m stopped on my way home. Overall, it cost me $2200 to fix the damage, since I just dropped full comprehensive on the then 15 yr old vehicle about 6 months prior. I was picking deer hairs and chips of windshield glass from inside that car for the next 10 yrs until the car finally was not worth driving. Last I heard, that car ended its life running some oval track races out in Painesville.
I sure woulda liked to have seen that 8 point rack mounted to the nose of that car. That little CRX at the very least, earned it.
for a rural-based state, some people are just backwards….dress it where it died and dispose the remains where other beasts can take advantage of it…where else do you get rid of entrails?
Vince got it wrong again, The cop DID let her go, the lady was issued a deer receipt which basically allows her to possess the carcass and take it to a meat processor without being accused of poaching the deer.
The neighborhood where the deer was hit would be a factor on whether you could gut the deer near the road or not. No one would want to find a gut pile in their front yard, but if it were out in a rural area I would gut it where I found it too.