[darkbrowneggs]

Thanks sfs! I didn't think a butcher would touch it - I can imagine the looks on the customers faces if I just walked into a butchers with a sheep over my arms saying can you chop this up please matey?  

I would have bled and hung it as soon as I had discovered it, which wouldn't be any more than a few hours after death. I've had road kill before (pheasant) without knowing the history and was fine (but could have been lucky). I thought that if I discarded the organs/offal and thoroughly cooked the meat then it would be safe to eat? Think I must have been watching too much Bear Grylls!!  

Knackerman it is then...  

I may be wrong, but I thought that the heart / blood is still pumping when an animal is killed and bled.  I know its not a nice topic to discuss, but presumably it needs thinking about now so many people seem to be considering eating dead rather than slaughtered animals

I thought that when an animal is slaughtered the slaughterman first stuns it so it feels no pain, though this presumably doesn't kill it as such.  The throat is then cut so the blood is pumped out by the heart and the animal then dies.  So any "dead" animal could not be bled as such.  Hence the difference in taste between game and butchers meat.  One being stronger tasting and full of blood, the other milder having been bled to death - as I say unpleasant to consider, but next time you browse the supermarket shelves every piece of meat will be the result of such.

It may be just my old fashioned prejudices but as mentioned by another poster I wouldn't consider eating anything unless I knew exactly how and when it died.  I suppose road kill is just that - if you ran it over, stopped the car and it was dead, then perhaps a deer or rabbit or pheasant would be acceptable to eat.  But if something is dead in the road I  personally would never consider eating it.

All the best
Sue

And Bear dosen't "you know what" in the woods -  he always stays in a first class hotel when he is filming on location 

[lachlanandmarcus]

I joined the fallen livestock scheme (£10 ish to join, one off), the only time I had to call them for a dead sheep they took it the same day despite being based 2 hours away (they are the nearest!) and it cost less than £10. No hunts round our area, so thats not an option. Again I wouldnt eat it unless it was both an accidental death and I saw it happen - even then you still have the prob of how to dispose of the head as that has to go as special waste, which Im not set up for, so still prob would go for the FLScheme.

I didnt have to be in either, you pay in arrears by DD, so was able to leave it in loader bucket for them to take and they left the paperwork

Do you use Douglasbrae?

yes they are currently the sole contractor for my area, tho I heard another was thinking of being in the scheme.

[SallyintNorth]

As I understand it, it is pork that needs to be bled, hence why it is a paler meat than beef or lamb.  And I was told, by a man who did home kills on farms in Wales, that you stun them and string them up, then slit the throat so that the heart is still pumping to push the blood out.  The pig dies from lack of blood carrying oxygen to the brain while it is unconscious from the stunning.  I did in fact witness such a kill so that I would know what was involved and whether I thought the pig knew anything about it, and with this slaughterman I fet very comfortable that the pig knew nothing and was not stressed for one second at any time throughout.

The rules about home kill differ from country to country and species to species and are VERY strict. 

As a commercial sheep farmer I am pretty sure that, in England at least, any dead sheep has to be notified and disposed of by an authorised deadstock handler.  Our local hunt is authorised, as are a couple of 'dead cart' operations.  All three will terminate a sick animal before loading if required at no extra cost.

[robert waddell]

darkbrowneggs you are right they are stunned then bled the last animal that i watched  was stunned ,bled, skinned.gutted and halved straight to chiller and it was still having muscle spasms