In some places in the world the biggest factor on the cost of car insurance is not the risk of theft or the risk of accident with another vehicle – instead, it’s the risk of running into wildlife.

In Britain, it’s most likely to be a fox or a badger or, particularly dangerously, a deer. In Australia, famously, it’s the kangaroo, while in Africa it is likely to be one of many potential candidates, ranging from a monkey to rhinoceros.


There’s an argument that if you get lucky and don’t end up suffering serious injury when you run over wildlife, you should take the animal home and cook it – unless it’s still alive and able to be rehabilitated, of course.

Proponents of roadkill eating say that it’s ethical and, furthermore, delicious. I don’t know about the ethical arguments for eating maimed badger, squirrel or deer, but I’m pretty certain that my wife wouldn’t be amenable if I came home on a Friday night and said, “Good news, I picked up some food on the way home.”

“Oh, did you darling? Where from.”

“The road, literally. I had to unpeel it”

But perhaps she’d be converted, and myself as well, if I took her to West Virginia for this month’s RoadKill Cook-off and Autumn Harvest Festival, where all manner of roadkill will be sampled by local drivers and tourists alike.

What’s on the menu, you ask? Well, deer, turtle, armadillo, alligator and buffalo are just some of the fare on offer.