Most people tend to sit down for a traditional Christmas dinner of turkey every year and whilst some families might have something slightly less traditional, I doubt many will be serving up what Jim Alexander and his girlfriend Betina Bradshaw have planned this year.

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Jim grew up in Czechoslovakia and learned to live off the land at a young age, killing his first rabbit at the age of five. As such, these days he tends to collect roadkill from his home near Torquay and Devon and is planning on cooking it for his friends and family this Christmas Day. The meat will include deer, pheasant rabbits and even badger that Jim has foraged from the neighbourhood.

He had this to say about his unusual choice of Christmas dinner:

I know people will think it’s unusual but really it just makes sense.

I do it because I can’t stand to see the waste of life and, by taking the animals home and eating them, I’m at least somehow reducing that waste.

I only really go to the shop now for things that I can’t find outside like toothpaste and shower gel.

We were very rural. We were the sort of people who never went to the shops.

I was five years old when I killed my first rabbit. That was the sort of thing we did. It was in my blood.

A few times a police car has pulled over while I’ve been by the side of the road lifting a carcass into my van.

They always look at me a bit strange when I tell them what I’m up to, but once they realise I’m doing nothing wrong they are fine and one even helped me lift an animal into the van.

I mean fair play to the guy I suppose – he is reducing food waste and helping clean up the roads so you can’t really call him out on it, the fact is that it’s just a bit gross and probably not something I would be too keen on experiencing. Probably prefer to eat vegan food, you know? At least you know where it’s been, right?

In case you’re worried about him and his family though, Jim is a trained butcher and used to work in an abattoir, so that coupled with his youth growing up in the Czech wilderness foraging should mean that he knows what he’s doing. I bet if he didn’t tell you it was roadkill it would probably be really nice, but as he has then maybe I’m not so sure.

For more of the same, check out this deep fried Christmas dinner. Not sure which is ranker to be honest.