Just reading an article on cooking road kill for dinner and came across this interesting line:

The countryside code of practice foes that you should not pick up a carcass that you yourself have hit, but leave it for the next car to pick up. The Highways Agency actually lays claim to the ownership of dead animals on the road, indicating that stopping to pop freshly killed, plump pheasant into the boot of your car is poaching…[but they] rarely enforce their ownership.

There’s certainly nothing written in the Countryside Code (nothing to do with practice) and the author’s probably just regurgitating received “wisdom”.
As for poaching from the Highways Agency, it’s self-evidently not really a law, let alone that the HA do not even own all the land under the roads they manage.

I would have thought that assuming there was no deliberate act by the driver in killing the animal, it would be preferable for the first person on the scene (usually the driver) to stop and a) check whether the animal is dead, b) dispatch it if necessary and then c) take it away to the pot while it’s freshest.

I would have thought that assuming there was no deliberate act by the driver in killing the animal,

How do you prove it wasn’t deliberate? easiest way is to not take something you have hit as there is then no benefit to you.

As long as you didn’t aim for it, (and if you’re on a bit of road by yourself, who would know anyway), then I don’t suppose any-one would care if you stopped and collected it.

cannot see how this would ever be enforced what ever the real version of the law is

Agree its best to check its dead and then if it is then you might as well eat it if you are that way inclined

Plenty of wood pigeons here that get hit if anyone wants them. 😉

What does squashed badger taste like?

like mushroom, mushroom.

As long as you didn’t aim for it,

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nt6kKhlX8vU[/video]