THE ROADKILL PROGRAM

ALASKA 2009


In Alaska moose are considered state property under the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, and anyone who finds roadkill must call a state trooper, who
turns the carcass over to charity “if it’s not too smooshed”.
When they receive news of a moose roadkill, volunteers or families rush to the scene to butcher the animal, which must be quickly bled, gutted and quartered so the meat can cool as fast as possible.
The meat is taken to churches and NGOs which distribute it to needy families, and soup kitchens make stew.
Around 200 moose are distributed in this way each year in Anchorage.
Local residents may also register to be included on the “roadkill list” ensuring that the valuable meat is not wasted.
The sale of moose meat is illegal in Alaska.                                                                                                     

 RK01 Countryside around Anchorage. Aerial view. Every year in Alaska about 160 to two hundred moose are run over by drivers. Generally most of the accidents happen in winter: short visibility and frozen roads cause about daily crashes. In the popular American culture, such phenomenon is called “roadkill”.                                                RK02 Moose tracks by a house. Moose usually get around in pairs. Mother and cub usually. It isn't unlikely that when one of them is injured or killed the other sticks around until the other bodyleaves                                                          RK04 A moose on Minnesota drive. Not unlike any other creature a moose is attracted to the simplest path to his destination, that is way thay often cross or just walk along the road.                                                          RK03 After a collision with a moose. Moose fur on a car.                                                       RK05

A moose has tried to cross the road on minnesota drive, it hit a van half-way to the other side. He made it back to right side of the road. But when such a thing happens, the police are supposed to put the moose down in order to prevent future accidents. That’s a possible strat fort he roadkill program. This particular moose has been delivered in part to bean’s cafè, in Anchorage dowtown                                                         

 RK06 A menonite volunteer group from Virginia has collected a moose. This community has five young elements, two are leaders plus three younger operators, they explore the states participating in community projects and educational trainings. They participate to the roadkill program as group, take a part of the meat and devolve the rest to charity.                                                             RK07 Dead moose being taken from the side of the road by a volunteer association called, Combat Haulers.
It is possible to register to the roadkill program as a group, individual application is impossible.  as it is almost impossible to pick-up a moose for only one person                                                          		 RK08 Fred 25, is a menonite volunteer from Virginia, he is gutting a moose. togheter with his wife they are the leaders of a small menonite community in anchorage. This community has five young elements, two are leaders plus three younger operators, they explore the states participating in community projects and educational trainings. They participate to the roadkill program as group, take a part of the meat and devolve the rest to charity.                                                               RK09 In the house of the mononite volunteers, after a "moose night"                                                                     RK12 Margot, Kelly – fred’s wife-  and nicky started processing the meat, they live in a house provided by the church which doesn’t really pay anything else. They subscribed to the roadkill program a couple of weeks before the first moose.                                                         RK13 Vernon, a volunteer came to pick a moose. The animal was just dead. It run into an suv the day before than it went back in the backyard of house, there arrived a cop who put it down.                                                            RK10 Gene Joey and Joseph Delgado in their house, cutting moose meat. Gene’s family are aleut. They are proccesing personally the meat they collected. The heart, the liver are perfect for soups and stew, rather than roasted.                                                            RK11 Soup kitchen downtown. In this place, religious volunteer meet to pray and help the needy, they cook food for the homeless in Anchorage. Roadkill moose meat arrives and in the day of this photo the pastor just finished cooking fort he homeless. This pastor is very young but found his place by giving his personal soft interpratation of the scriptures.                                                              RK14 Three volunteer of the first baptist church collected a moose, they loaded the animel on a pick-up truck and took it home where they are gutting it.                                                                      RK15 Playing with snow                                                RK17 Dead moose by the menonite volunteer group's house.                                                            RK16 Vernon called a friend, he is a professional butcher, he make it so that the job is done in less than two hours. They have no place to take the moose, so they start to gutt it right on the road.                                                          RK18 Gene Delgado and his good friend, Hana in gene’s house.
Gene is an veteran, he lost his legs in a bike crash.  He lives in anchorage.                                                  		 RK19 A bold eagle is flying above the land fill outside Anchorage. Some of the last remaining of the moose collected during the Roadkill Program arrive here.                                                                 

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