Roadkill cookout: State bill could let Californians legally eat their roadkill

SACRAMENTO, California -- A proposed California state law would make it legal for residents to eat roadkill.

Senate bill 365 would allow people who accidentally hit and kill wild animals on California roads to recover the edible portions.

"You're gonna get a lot of loss. There's not much you're going to get out of the animal after its been hit like that," California butcher Ian Higgs said.

Higgs is a custom butcher at Roseville meats, which is a craft he has refined for over a decade.

"It's definitely an art," Higgs said.

He says you can't harvest much edible meat from a roadkill because the trauma from most deadly collisions makes the meat go bad.

"You can't eat dirt. The thing is when you get hit hard, you're going to have a lot of tough meat," Higgs said.

California is following more than 20 other states that have already made eating roadkill legal.

UC Davis has maintained a website documenting roadkill incidents across California.

If passed, the law would go into effect on Jan. 1, 2021.