BOZEMAN, Mont. — A successful hunting trip requires many important steps. From planning where to hunt, to finding game animals, to using safe skills to bring down the animal and finally taking it home for processing. That final step also includes properly disposing of the carcass after the meat has been processed.
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Fish, Wildlife and Parks’ Morgan Jacobsen says hunters have two options when it comes to carcass disposal. The first happens early on.
“Any pieces of the carcass that you are not required to take with you can be left at the kill site if it’s on public land. If it’s on private land, they can be left at the kill site as long as you have permission from the landowner to leave it there," Jacobsen said.
The other option is to bag them up at your house and drop them in your trash for pick-up, so they end up in the landfill.
Jacobsen says that not only helps with sanitation it also can help prevent the spread of disease.
“It helps prevent the spread of things like chronic wasting disease. Carcass parts can be a vector for spreading that, and so by responsibly disposing of those carcass parts you’re helping reduce the spread of CWD (Chronic Wasting Disease).”
FWP spends hours each hunting season removing carcasses from fishing access sites, state parks and roadsides because someone illegally dumped them in those places. Jacobsen stresses leaving a carcass in those places is an illegal act and could impact the ability to hunt in the future.
“If you’re found littering while in the act of or in connection with a hunting activity, you know it could come with suspension of hunting and fishing privileges, which we don’t want to see," Jacobsen said.
