Who gets the moose?

In regard to the letter, “Who gets the road kill moose?” (BDN, Dec. 22). I was a butcher in Aroostook County for several years. I have retrieved several moose for accident victims, game wardens and state police. If you think you are going to get a lot of meat, you are wrong. A tractor trailer, pickup or car traveling 50 mph that hits a moose does a lot of damage to the animal. The meat is bloodshod, full of broken bones, dirt, hot-top or whatever else it picks up being dragged down the road.

The average person doesn’t want to pay the $100 to $150 to pay the butchering. The food pantry or homeless people do not need to eat mangled bones and blood clots in their meat.

Most road kill occurs in the nighttime. There are not many butchers who will get out, retrieve and butcher the animal for nothing. Someone has to pay these expenses. Take your money and buy something you can eat.

The next time you hear on your scanner that a moose has been hit, go to the slaughterhouse. Watch them butcher this abused animal and then make up your own mind whether you would want to eat it, throw it in the barrel for rendering or leave it for the scavengers to eat. Merle Cowperthwaite Winslow