In 2019, news outlets across the country had headlines proclaiming that California drivers would soon be allowed to eat roadkill, thanks to a new state law.
More than two years later, it remains very much illegal to pick up a wild animal carcass along the side of the road in California. And it’s likely to stay that way for the time being, despite the law that Gov. Gavin Newsom signed that allowed state wildlife regulators to establish a roadkill salvage pilot program by Jan. 1 of this year.
The reason: The Legislature never provided the millions of dollars necessary to get the program off the ground. “COVID-19 has required us to triage and sometimes redirect focus on many of our mandates, including valuable new programs,” Jordan Traverso, a spokeswoman for the Department of Fish and Wildlife, said in an email. “Regardless of the missed implementation date, we are still working toward beginning a permit program that could bring many thousands of pounds of meat to Californians.”
