If a person hits a deer with a vehicle, there is a way it can be legally taken home and eaten.
It is not uncommon for people to hit a deer with their vehicle here in the Show-Me State. If a person wants to take it home, all they will need is a Wildlife Dispensation Permit from the Missouri Department of Conservation.
Deer are an animal that Missouri motorists need to be wary of. Sgt. Jason Pace and the Missouri State Highway Patrol sees crashes involving deer all too often.
“Last year in our state we experienced over 4,600 traffic crashes where a car or truck struck a deer,” Pace said. “This included 455 injuries, and six people actually lost their lives as a result of hitting a deer.”
Striking a deer not an ideal situation for a number of reasons. However, it could be a way to put food on the table.
But it isn’t a substitute for hunting.
Francis Skalicky of the Missouri Department of Conservation said like hunting, the public will still need a permit to take that deer home.
“If someone comes upon a carcass that has been killed from some type of vehicular accident, and they want to take possession of it, they can,” Skalicky said. “You have to have a record for every deer that you take possession of. This is just that record. You didn’t kill it by hunting, but you obtained it through the method of the Wildlife Dispensation Permit.”
Skalicky said in this situation, the decision to take the deer home is completely up to the person.
“If you feel that there is good meat on there that you can harvest that you can cut away from that carcass, that isn’t damaged from the accident that killed it, then that’s fine,” Skalicky said.
If a person is unsure about the quality of meat, Skalicky said it is best to leave it alone.
“We don’t come out and do a meat value assessment,” Skalicky said. “We let the person taking the deer be the judge of their own situation with that.”
The Wildlife Dispensation permit is free.
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