A RETIRED civil servant has written a road kill cookbook to teach people how to turn dead animals found from the side of the road into a nutritious meal.

Arthur Boyt has spent the last 50 years enjoying rats, bats, badgers, cats, weasels and foxes as an alternative source of meat.

Boyt said: "If the animal has been dead a while and has gone green the taste is a bit bland, but if you cook them thoroughly, you can still eat it. I've been doing it all my life and never been ill once." He has been approached by Gordon Ramsay’s cooking show and may cook with the celebrity chef later this year.

Boyt, (66), from north Cornwall, insisted that the creatures were not a health threat if properly butchered and cooked. He said: "It's good meat for free, and I know nobody has been messing with it and feeding it with hormones. By writing a book I hope to show people it's perfectly normal and healthy to eat."

Boyt has also tasted Labrador, which he makes clear, was without a collar when he found it. “There was nothing on it to show who its owner was even though it was in good condition, so I took it home and ate it. It was just like a nice piece of lamb.”

One of the meals described in the book was ‘Hedgehog spaghetti carbonara’ (serves four)