To feel disgusted that I ate roadkill.

[MaryPoppinsMassiveSack]

The other day I got back from work to find a beautiful chicken (I assumed) pie and honey roast veg waiting for me. It was only afterwards, when I saw the carnage in the kitchen, that I was informed that, following a bump on the way home, DH had claimed the life of an unsuspecting PHEASANT! "It was fresh" was his response.

It was also dead tasty, but I'm a bit grossed out by the whole thing, and the kitchen looks like Emu and Orville have been going at it.

Would I have eaten it if I'd known in advance? Probably not. Would you?

Loads of pheasants around here - deeply stupid birds with absolutely no sense of heavy objects hurtling towards them.

as are city pigeons but that's another story

I wouldn't eat it as I'm not a big fan of game, but otherwise... meh.

Not keen on pheasant but there are lots of dozy ones around here. Quite a few wild deer as well and they can give you a nasty fright when they leap into the road. I had heard the story that you aren't allowed to pick it up yourself but can pick up someone else's roadkill.
Presumably to deter people like my Grandad who used to set off down the lane with the express intention of bringing home a pheasant for Sunday lunch.

Is Bear Grylls married?

As far as I see it, he who sleeps in a sheep, sleeps alone.

As far as I see it, he who sleeps in a sheep, sleeps alone

My parents recently told me a story about some friends of theirs who had a collision with a deer in their car. They were still sitting in the car by the side of the road, a bit stunned and just getting their heads together to get out and assess the damage, when a Transit van pulled up, a couple of blokes got out, slung the deer in the back of the van and drove off. Now that's what I call enterprise .

My old office was in a forest used for game. Our newest assistant noticed a deer with a badly broken leg out our window, and was quite upset.

I phoned the gamekeeper to let him know, to try and find it. He had been notified by the police that one had been hit that morning.

A few hours later he called in for a cuppa and she asked whether he found the deer. He said yup. She went off for lunch. Then we heard the scream.

She hadnt realised he was going to shoot it, and was distraught when she saw it in his van

So I'm sat ineffectually patting her on the back when the Gamekeeper goes "I assume you want some" whilst I nod enthusiastically behind her back.

If you're unsure about the disease factor, you could do a sort of CSI Farthing Wood. Take the skull down, wedge it in the remains of the pie and take it to your nearest vet for a post-mortem.

We're regularly eating some kind of random bird from when DH takes the dog shooting.

Don't mind eating it. Do mind watching him dress them. Boke.

I'm impressed. He sounds self sufficient. Saves a bit on money. As long as he isn't money saving obsessed. Don't get me started on my husband using a teabag three times...

Well I've met people who've eaten roadkill badger, which is odder.

You're not allowed to eat one you've killed yourself though (or the temptation might be too great), so you are in fact complicit in eating the evidence of a crime.

Like the sequins, a low-rent Damian?

Hit a deer once, too. Almost wrote the car off.

Beautiful bastard creatures.

We see them all up the A1 during the autumn and winter. You might have thought that natural selection would have rid the species of the blindly fly in front of a car gene, but, nope, they still do it.

Then again, crows are supposed to be intelligent birds, but there's often a crow carcase in the road, somewhere near a pheasant carcase.

I've been given a pheasant this week, (shot not roadkill!) there were two but apparently the other one had been got at by a mouse coudln't refuse it as would have offended, so just slung it in the back of the freezer, never to be eaten.

I've done this too. Hit a pheasant & knew I hadn't killed it. Stopped to look for it- found it in the ditch with 2 mangled legs. At that point a nice man stopped to see if I was ok , because I had the hazard lights on,and dispatched it for me. It made a tasty tea.

you could be like this man but without the comb over.

I'd eat it. Shame to waste it.

You'd have hated my nan OP. She used to TAKE AIM at any rabbit or pheasant stupid enough to stray into the path of her car. Believe me being driven by ner on a country lane was terrifying. She would have them skinned / plucked or hanging before you knew it. Food was always fresh at her table

Blimey just read the rest of the thread - sounds as if I regulary ingested the evidence of crime as a child

I've met someone who used to eat roadkill badger too- he'd cook it up as "brock au vin"

Hopefully I'm wrong on this but I know that certainly in the past pheasants which are bred by shoots were fed special food which fattens them up quickly to make them an easier target presumably, but which contains nasty stuff which renders them unfit for human consumption? Maybe this has changed but might be worth checking out...

Yes roadkill is lovely, saves me the trouble of shooting it. I often pick them up (only if it's a very cold day or the body is still warm). A roadkill can be hung for a few days but you need to do a quick visual inspection to make sure the guts haven't been ruptured as the bile and other nasties can taint the meat. If it looks intact then I find about 4-5 days hanging at about 8-10 degrees gives a nice gamey flavour without being too strong. Very fresh as you had, they can taste a little weaker and chickeny so I'm not surprised you mistook it for chicken.

The stuff that pheasant shoots feed them is just protein and corn, most shooters (incl me) eat what they shoot so we wouldn't feed them anything that renders them unfit to eat. THose we don't eat ourselves go to the local butcher and if any are hit a bit hard they go for the dogs or ferrets to eat - nothing is wasted. Also, the food we feed them makes them stronger fliers and actually more difficult to shoot (what's the point in a sport if it's easy?)

Interestingly, on most shoots the 'return rate' is only about 40% ish - meaning that 60% of the birds disappear off into the wild without getting shot.

Sequinned skull on bike?
Dead pheasant?
Carcass in kitchen?

I wonder how far this story will go?

I read an article about a man who eats ANY roadkill (squirrels, foxes, badgers etc etc) - OP you got off lightly with a pheasant!