Sad tale of a bobcat roadkill on Route 41

SHARON — On a chilly morning, May 16, my wife and I found a young female bobcat killed near our house on Route 41 between Sharon and Lakeville, near the Beardsley Town Reservoir.  This beautiful creature had been struck on the head, leaving the pelt in near perfect condition. I moved the body off the highway onto the embankment on the east side of the road.

A passing trucker stopped and told me about a person in Massachusetts named Pamela Paquin who, thanks to an easing of Massachusetts law, he believed was making fur coats from roadkill.  It turned out that while she can pick up a roadkill in Massachusetts, she is not allowed to do so in Connecticut. So I called Whitney Taxidermist in Sherman, Conn.

Unfortunately, Whitney is equally constrained by Connecticut law, as he learned at a conference just recently. So, on his suggestion, I called the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), and reached someone who sounded quite interested, and said they would be sending a biologist, Jason Holly, out to see us and pick up the bobcat for various tests.  This left the pelt question unresolved, but at least some useful purpose would have been served.                                                      

Paquin later said that although Massachusetts law eased concerning picking up roadkill,  there has been a new fear that some people are trapping and shooting fur-bearing animals and then submitting the carcasses as roadkill to obtain payment.  This violates her intention of making the killing of animals for fur a thing of the past.  So, she no longer can accept donations or buy road-killed animals from individuals.  

Meanwhile, the DEEP biologist never showed up for the dead bobcat on Route 41.  But the coyotes did.  End of story.