zieak
Member

Registered: Dec 2000
Location: Petersburg, AK
Posts: 131 |
Aren't they protected?
quote: Aren't they protected?
Yes. By quite a few federal statutes. But what happened was an accident and I felt that leaving the bird laying there in the road only to be run over by more cars was going to be even more disrespectful than eating it. Besides - it broke my grill!
Technically I can't have a feather from that bird in my posession. Nor can you have a bluebird, robin, or even seagull feather. However you'd be pretty hard pressed to find a conservation officer in NY willing to enforce those laws to the fullest extent. The reason for that is so that when a poacher is caught they can be really hit hard. My understanding is that most people would be told to get rid of any feathers from a protected bird (all but rock dove, starling, and 1 other that I can't remember right now). In my case I was willing to risk the fines for eating roadkill rather than go hungry.
I think that if people had to eat the animals that they ran over in their vehicles then you'd have a lot fewer dogs, cats, squirrels, and frogs fatally wounded by cars. Then again, in my area, you'd have a lot of cars injured in the "taking" of deer.
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