Roadkill kangaroo in France makes good stew

PERIGUEUX, France, Jan 19, 2006 (AFP) – An Australian wallaby, or small kangaroo, that had been on the hop in southwest France since escaping its owner three months ago is headed for the stewpot after being found dead.

Bernadette Darchen, the retired French zoology professor who had been keeping the 70-centimetre high macropod on her property in the Dordogne region, said the fugitive animal was killed by a car.

“You have to stay pragmatic. Rather than burying it, we’re going to eat it. It’s good meat,” she said after recovering the corpse and cutting it up.

“I’m going to make a sort of stew,” she said.

Darchen said she had searched everywhere for the wayward marsupial, even using hunting dogs to try and pick up its scent, though they turned out to be more interested in wild boar and deer.

The 69-year-old retiree’s surviving menagerie now counts another wallaby, a midget zebu (a species of ox from India), a donkey and parrots.

Subject: French news