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Eat roadkill law in Oregon tops Cycle World list of weird U.S. motoring laws

The motorcycle magazine compiles an annual list of strange motoring laws in the United States and Oregon makes the list twice.

Cycle World magazine compiles an annual list of strange motoring laws in the United States and Oregon makes the list twice.

Their No. 1 weird law is the one that took effect in January that lets you eat animals you struck and killed on the highway.

There are some guidelines to the Oregon law, like you can't run down an animal in hopes of a meal.

Here's what Cycle World has to say.

1. Oregon just can’t seem to get that Wild West mentality out its system; the state has now made it perfectly fine to salvage deer and elk accidentally struck by a vehicle. But there are a few provisions to go along with that, such as: You need a permit; you have to move the entire carcass off the road; and it can be salvaged for human consumption only. Either way, roadkill is now on the menu. Yum.

By the way, eating roadkill is common in Montana. The video accompanying this story is from 2016, about a food bank there that has been butchering "vehicle tenderized meat" since the 1980s.

At least 27 states have passed legislation allowing drivers to turn their roadkill into their dinner, and lawmakers in many others, including California, are poised to do the same.

"At the end of the day, it just makes sense to put to positive use the animals that were just going to end up decaying and creating problems alongside the road," Oregon state Sen. Bill Hansell, a sponsor of the roadkill law told NBC News.

The other Oregon law the magazine cited?

It's legal for a motorcyclist to run a red light. Sort of. A motorcyclist can advance through a red light if they sit through an entire cycle and the light won't change. At least 12 other states have the same law.

NBC News contributed to this report.

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