# Roadkill Cafe



## Maren Bell Jones (Jun 7, 2006)

So on one of the other threads, we were talking about feeding roadkill to the dogs. I almost contemplated doing this last fall as there was a deer killed on the side of the road a few miles from my house, it wasn't quite freezing, but hadn't gotten over 40 degrees, so unlikely to spoil in less than 24 hours, but when I got back over there, it was gone already. So for you guys who have done this...what do you do exactly?


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## Konnie Hein (Jun 14, 2006)

We have a friend at the local SP post who lets us know when there is a deer to pick up. We throw it in the back of the p/u truck and haul it home. I used to work for a researcher collecting specimens from deer at a Naval station's lottery deer hunt check station (where deer were brought to the check station with guts intact), so stringing them up, gutting them and cutting them into pieces isn't new to me. We then bag and freeze. I'll also just throw some of the larger parts (head, etc.) into the dog yard for the dogs to chew on. They love it!

Hey Maren, weren't you the one several months ago who was a big nay-sayer on feeding deer??? I'm pretty sure I remember a discussion here where you said you wouldn't feed it because of CWD. Did you have a change of heart???


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## Maren Bell Jones (Jun 7, 2006)

Konnie Hein said:


> Hey Maren, weren't you the one several months ago who was a big nay-sayer on feeding deer??? I'm pretty sure I remember a discussion here where you said you wouldn't feed it because of CWD. Did you have a change of heart???



No, I'm not a nay sayer in ever feeding deer and never was. ;-) I've gotten it from hunters before and my dogs eat EVO 95% venison for variety (although their's comes from farmed New Zealand deer, not roadkill). But I am really glad you brought this up. With all wild game, one must still be cautious and it is a danger, for sure. I did a bit a research and found the closest state with CWD is Wisconsin:

http://www.cwd-info.org/index.php/fuseaction/news.detail/ID/35f11f1f1359e5127a886eadcd2e625b

In Wisconsin and in other states, you can submit samples to participating vets who can test for it. 

http://dnr.wi.gov/org/land/wildlife/WHEALTH/issues/cwd/vettest.htm

I think that'd be pretty wise to send off a sample before either eating it yourself or giving it to the dogs. At any rate, I'd freeze it for 3-4 weeks at least before consumption for parasites, so might as well wait for the test result to come back.


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## Konnie Hein (Jun 14, 2006)

Maren Bell Jones said:


> No, I'm not a nay sayer in ever feeding deer and never was. ;-)


I think I misunderstood your posts from this thread then:
http://www.workingdogforum.com/vBulletin/f25/feeding-venison-3890/

I took them to mean you wouldn't feed deer due to the risk.


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## Guest (Jul 27, 2008)

Here's the process, since I don't have a truck to toss it into, or help from a partner. Just me, a knife, and the side of the road.

On scene I start from easiest to hardest in terms of dismemberment tasks:

Don't eviscerate or skin it....yet. An assembled deer is very awkward to maneuver alone, adn this isn't for human consumption anyway.

-Remove shoulders. 

-Remove head/neck at the shoulders. Slice through the meat and twist it off. Save your knife edge for the more demanding tasks later.

-Remove thighs at the joint. Lotta meat around the "saddle", which secures the back legs. Without cutting through that, it seems like it's the joint itself holding things together. Once the muscle is cut you can twist the joints out with minimal effort. That said, the bones are so hard, and there's so much meat, I often don't even keep the back legs.

-Remove skin from the remaining torso.

-Remove guts

-Hack through ribs along both sides of the spine

-Hack through spine in increments of your choice.

-Guts harden as they cool, and can be handled without sloshing around.

All this I can stack into a large dog crate in a compact car. It goes fast with practice, all on one sharpening of a full-sized Ka-bar knife.

Don't hack through the middle of weight bearing bones if you need to shorten them. Cut the ligaments at the joints while the knife is still sharp.

Looks a little something like this (minus stomach and intestines...I feed those first, so I don't have to store the shit...literally.)

P.S. Dogs produce foul burp-gas from meat originating in male deers during the rut. It's nauseating. If you can be choosy, go with does.


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## Konnie Hein (Jun 14, 2006)

Steven Lepic said:


> -Guts harden as they cool, and can be handled without sloshing around.


This is my favorite sentence from your post. Yum! :-&


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## Maren Bell Jones (Jun 7, 2006)

Konnie, the issue was with eating deer in areas of known CWD infection. I still say =; on that. Fortunately (so far), Missouri doesn't seem affected. But if they were, no siree Bob. I'd pass if it wasn't tested first, especially on roadkill.

Steven, thanks for the tips on how "field dress" road killed deer. Reminds me a lot of cutting up the ponies for anatomy dissection lab this last spring.  Pretty similar in size too. One of the reasons why buck meat doesn't taste so good in the fall is the males are under high levels of stress with lots of cortisol and hormones from the rut. That's also why rough handling at a slaughter house will toughen meat.


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