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pskipper wrote:It's also worth knowing whether the animal is protected or not, it's illegal to eat hedgehogs.

Really? I didn't know that! I know swans belong to the queen.

I think that once an animal is dead, it passes out of legal protection, it is simply a carcass. Clearly the law wants to protect an animal from a person who would want to drive at it to provide a dinner for himself.
I was told as a child that the travelling community (PC words) baked hegehogs and they were considered tasty? If you had a mind to eat a dead hedgehog, you would not have endangered the animal. Could be a tricky area if you were asked to prove the animal was alive before you decided to cook it.

John

I remember hearing that hedgehogs were wrapped in clay before being baked and as the clay was removed it took the spines (and presumably the skin) with it.

Anna x

as long as you don't kill a protected or endangered animal to eat it then wouldn't it be ok? though you couldn't really prove that's what happened :s

Here's a cautionary tale that raised a few eyebrows a little while ago.

Why is that a cautionary tale? The old boy obviously saw the actions over a dead bird by the officers as foolish, thus his jokes about the Tower of London etc. A good read though, quite a laugh. One might think that having bits of swans in the freezer and wings knocking about might be a bit suspicious though. Commonsense is all that is needed. If its a dead swan ask the local rspb about it. I am sure there could be no legal precedant for bringing a case against a person for a dead carcass of any animal if you did not bring about the death of the poor creature.
Humans leave their parts to others on death, reasonable to assume we can make use of other creatures parts on death. If its on the public highway ask the council for their views perhaps. In the middle of nowhere, go ahead and cook it.

John

TBH I wouldnt eat any wild birds that I found. What if the cause of death was bird flu?

My husband recalls a time when his dad hit a dear on a family outing, threw it over a wall, took the kids home and then came back to collect it. He hung it in the barn and he supplied his family of 5 with quality meat for a long while.

The point is if you have a family to feed and little money, you don't throw away free food. It had nothing to do with morality, animal welfare, or conservation. People these days don't know how good they have it sometimes I think.

Tara

TBH I wouldnt eat any wild birds that I found. What if the cause of death was bird flu?

Not really a problem, flu is transmitted by inhalation! Provided you gutted the bird in an open environment and didn't eat the offal (again it should be safe once cooked) you should be fine (not that I'm saying to go ahead and do it). The main problem with bird flu is intensive farming, this increases the amount of virus in the air compared to that of someone with a couple of chooks, even then it really requires one of the workers/people with access to the birds to have human flu in the first place for a super nasty form to arise.

Well said Tara, To really be self sufficient or go off grid you have to gradually except new challenges. Light bulbs first, grilled badger later on.

From the good old Daily Mail an item regarding the government stocking up on body bags. True, around 3million, (I can't sleep now) They suggest 1 in 4 people could be affected, likely not all terminally. Makes global warming seem like a breeze does'nt it?

John

Oops sorry, body bags relates to bird flu risk.

John