She says it came out of nowhere. A woman driving her small car at night in west-central Oregon slammed into a bull elk. The impact left the elk dead near a ditch, shattered the windshield and damaged the hood.
“I so pray he didn’t suffer,” Archell Banta told the Albany Democrat-Herald. “Hitting this elk breaks my heart, but I’m so grateful that there is the new law and that he didn’t go to waste and I’m also so grateful to be alive.”
Covered in blood, she flagged down a passing car that stopped to offer assistance. A friend arrived a little later and told her about Oregon’s new roadkill law. She applied for the online permit the next day and claimed the meat.
(Photo source: Archell Banta)