It is now legal to skin roadkill in Illinois

In other news, it used to be illegal to skin roadkill in Illinois.

CASEYVILLE, Ill.(AP) – In six years of trapping, one thing has become apparent to Cody Champ: His pursuit of animal pelts isn't cheap, costing him $100 a week just for gas. So, it's little wonder the Illinois man welcomed a recent state law that allows him to get a few freebies, even if he needs a shovel and good gloves.

Among the hundreds of Illinois laws that took effect last year, the so-called "roadkill bill" got little attention despite being perhaps the quirkiest of all — allowing anyone with an Illinois furbearer license to salvage pelts or even food from the unfortunate fauna that prove no match for steel-belted radials.

Arizona Gives Taxpayers A Break and Cancels $1.25M Bridge for 250 Squirrels

The cost of this bridge would have been $5000 a squirrel. It would have saved an estimated 5 squirrels a year from becoming roadkill. Amortized over a ten year period, the cost per 'squirrel death saved' would have been $25,000 per squirrel. The cancellation came after news reports brought the project to the public's attention. Taxpayers have had a very small part of their faith in government sanity restored. So far, the squirrels have failed to comment.

ABC News reported:

Arizona abruptly canceled plans today to spend $1.25 million to build bridges for a colony of 250 squirrels so they would not have to cross a rural road and could avoid becoming road kill.

John Halikowski, director of Arizona's Department of Transportation, halted the bridge project...

"Protection of the red squirrel may be an appropriate effort," Halikowski said, "but not with transportation funding."

The money was being spent, officials said, because cars kill about five of these squirrels each year...