Deer Compost

I never knew how roadkill was disposed of. Turns out that in Maryland the state turns roadkill — particularly deer roadkill — into compost that's scattered by the side of the road. The process: the carcasses are taken to a "deer composting facility" where the bodies are loaded into large wooden bins. Horse manure and wood chips are piled on top. Every week the stuff in the bins is aerated and more manure and wood chips are added. Three months later, it's all moved into the open for curing. The end result is deer compost, which is scattered by the side of the road, helping to grow grass and plants that the living deer eat, until they get hit by a passing car, and the cycle is complete. [washington post]
     Posted By: Alex - Wed Oct 24, 2012
     Category: Animals | Death





Comments
You'd think that if they were just a little quicker on the trigger they could feed the hungry instead of turning all that venison into fertilizer.
Posted by Expat47 in Athens, Greece on 10/24/12 at 12:05 PM
Did we do this one here or did I see it somewhere else?

Deer Crossing
Posted by Expat47 in Athens, Greece on 10/24/12 at 12:10 PM
Nature never lets anything go to waste. It is all ultimately recycled - bacteria, mercury, rubber, people, stars. Nothing goes to waste.

Expat, I seem to remember a letter to the editor condemning hunting and cruelly killing animals and asking why hunters just couldn't get their meat from the supermarket like anyone else.
Posted by KDP on 10/24/12 at 12:28 PM
Feed the hungry? This is erring on the side of safety, not bureaucratic red tape.
Posted by BMN on 10/24/12 at 02:23 PM
Here if it is freshly killed by car or truck you are given the option of keeping it. It's now deer season and hunters can also turn in the carcasses to Jamison Meats butcher store and it is turn into deer sausage for the poor. Many of them only want the bucks rack and not the meat. Some will get a doe permit just for the sport of hunting one and then turn it in.
Posted by BrokeDad in Midwest US on 10/24/12 at 02:44 PM
Ahses to ashes; dust to dust; mulch to mulch.
Posted by tadchem on 10/24/12 at 02:53 PM
BTW I hate deer sausage and meat. I don't hunt much. We do have an overpopulation of them here so much they have hunts in state parks. I've seen two cross the road in front of me going to work this last week at 3:45am. I doubt my little Spider convertible would fare well hitting one.
Posted by BrokeDad in Midwest US on 10/24/12 at 03:42 PM
Using the deer that are killed by traffic to feed the hungry is a great idea, good on Indiana for doing it already. You are aboslutely right BD, your car would be toast. I just clipped a small doe one time in a sedan and it took out my drivers side mirror and dented the hell out of my fender. I got off lightly at that too.
Posted by Patty in Ohio, USA on 10/24/12 at 10:10 PM
In Rhea County, TN, home of the Monkey Trial, roadkill deer is fed to jail inmates.
In adjacent Roane County, roadkill is taken to a big-cat rescue preserve. TN, AFAIK, was the first state to make it legal to keep and eat one's own roadkill, a merciful law when one considers the cost of repairs to the family vehicle after it meets its deer or bear.
Posted by Withheld for obvious reasons on 10/28/12 at 02:01 PM
Commenting is not available in this channel entry.