roadkill

It’s legal to pick up roadkill for food in most of the Mountain West (Nevada excluded). You generally just have to get a permit, and now Wyoming is making that especially easy to do. In that state, you can get a permit via an app, called Wyoming 511. However, if you want to take part of the animal for food, you’ll need to take the entire animal with you.

Wyoming motorists can now collect roadkill to take home and eat – all they have to do is request permission through an app on their phone.

Next time you hit a deer while driving, you could legally harvest the animal for meat, if you like. That's because the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission approved a new law that gives permission each time an individual wants to collect a carcass along the road.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is now accepting public comment on regulations for roadkill harvest. Earlier this year, legislation passed that made it legal to collect road killed deer, elk, antelope, moose, bison, or wild turkey. While the law went into effect on July 1, it still isn't technically legal until regulations have been approved.

According to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD), every year, around 6,000 big game animals are hit on roads in Wyoming. These animals are left to waste by the roadside until they're picked up by Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT) employees. But thanks to new legislation passed this year, Wyoming will soon join 30 other states that allow people to collect those animals.

Animal-vehicle collisions have long been a problem in western states, leaving big game carcasses discarded along – or in the middle of – roadways. This…