Dead Animal Removal in Kenosha, WI
Who handles a dead animal in Kenosha and Kenosha County, quoted from the agency's own page: a city street, a state highway, and the private-property case that is yours to arrange.
- Phone first
- Nothing is priced on this site
- Your ZIP decides
- Who, if anyone, can take it on
- Quoted on the call
- Once the job is known
- ✓ Wisconsin statewide · one number
Who do I call for a dead animal in Kenosha, WI?
What decides it is the road the animal is lying on, or the fact that it is not lying on one. On a public street, City of Kenosha Department of Public Works, Street Division is the published contact: 262-653-4070. On an Interstate, US or state highway, WisDOT's car-killed deer contractor clears the shoulder; a carcass in the travel lane is a 911 call. On a county trunk highway it is the county highway department's. On private property, a yard, attic, deck or crawl space, it is the owner's to arrange; none of the Kenosha pages we reviewed offers collection from private property. For private property in Kenosha, Wisconsin Dead Animal Removal can talk through the situation and check whether an independent operator is available for a Kenosha County address: call (414) 928-2653. Nothing here guarantees availability, and any price is quoted on that call.
Is dead animal removal free in Kenosha?
Kenosha publishes one dead-animal service, and it is a street service. The Public Works Street Division takes reports of animal carcasses and road kill as street debris at 262-653-4070, weekdays 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., and its page names no charge. Nothing on the Transportation page, the Waste & Recycling Collection and Drop Off pages, Kenosha Police Department Policy 3.1, or Kenosha County's Highways, Public Works and FAQ pages covers a carcass on private property, so a yard, deck or garage job is the owner's to arrange. Whether that costs anything depends on whether the owner does it (DNR's bury-or-double-bag route) or hires an independent operator, whose price is quoted on the call. Anything on private property is the owner's responsibility; whether an independent operator is available for a Kenosha County address is decided on the call.
| Where the animal is | Who is responsible | Phone | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Public street or city property | City of Kenosha Department of Public Works, Street Division | 262-653-4070 | City service |
| Interstate, US or state highway | Wisconsin Department of Transportation, Southeast Region (Car-Killed Deer program, Highway Maintenance Manual 07-15-01) | 911 in the lane; county highway department or sheriff otherwise (no WisDOT hotline) | State service |
| Private property: yard, deck, attic, crawl space | The owner arranges it; an independent operator if one is available for the address | (414) 928-2653 | Depends on operator availability; quoted on the call |
“To report street debris, including animal carcasses/road kill, or to report barricade issues, please contact the Street Division at 262-653-4070 (M-F, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.).”
“Emergency: A situation involving an animal that is vicious, injured, sick, disabled, or an immediate threat to the public health, safety and welfare. ... All animals picked up by the Animal Control Agent will be disposed of according to contractual provisions.”
“Counties and municipalities are responsible for disposal of deer along county highways and local roads, respectively. ... For county roads, contact the county.”
“If the remains are on the active, traveled portion of a highway, call 911. These remains pose an urgent safety hazard.”
“Landowners who are looking to dispose of a dead deer on their property can bury it on their property, utilize a deer carcass waste dumpster if during the fall season, leave it where it lays or contact their local municipality to request it to be picked up”
“Keep garbage in plastic bags in brown automated carts ONLY.”
Quoted verbatim on 2026-09-15 from kenosha.org Public Works Transportation page, the Waste & Recycling Collection and Drop Off pages, Kenosha Police Department Policy and Procedure 3.1 (Animal Control), the Kenosha County Division of Highways, Public Works and FAQ pages on kenoshacountywi.gov, the WisDOT Car-Killed Deer page and Highway Maintenance Manual 07-15-01, and the Wisconsin DNR carcass and wildlife health pages.
What the pages do not say: Whether any city or county crew will enter private property for a dead animal; whether the Street Division retrieves a carcass from a terrace, alley, sidewalk or driveway apron as opposed to the paved street; response time; species or weight limits; whether a weekend or after-hours carcass call is dispatched or held to the next business day; where a street carcass is taken; whether a bagged carcass may go in the brown cart or be taken to the 1001 50th Street drop-off site; whether the Kenosha County Division of Highways picks up carcasses on county trunk highways and under what conditions; the name of WisDOT's CKD contractor for Kenosha County and the Sheriff's non-emergency number as published by the Sheriff; any dead-pet channel (the Wisconsin Humane Society Kenosha Campus page could not be opened); Kenosha County's CWD status; whether an independent operator currently covers Kenosha County.
Who not to call: The city's contracted Animal Control Agent for a carcass: Kenosha Police Department Policy 3.1 limits its work to vicious, injured, sick, disabled or stray animals and bite reports and never mentions dead animals; a carcass on a street goes to the Street Division; Wisconsin DNR for pickup: its sick-or-dead-deer page says 'in most cases, the department does not have the resources to remove dead animals, including deer'; 511 Wisconsin: the report form has no dead-animal category and WisDOT does not describe it as a carcass channel; WisDOT Southeast Region, 262-548-5902: listed on the city's Transportation page for state-owned traffic signals only; a deer on a state-highway shoulder is reported to the Kenosha County Sheriff's non-emergency line, and a deer in the lane to 911.
For the statewide version of this breakdown, see our guide to who picks up dead animals in Wisconsin.
Why Kenosha gets the dead-animal calls it does
Kenosha is the last Wisconsin city on I-94 before the Illinois line, built on the Lake Michigan shore around a harbor and the old Nash and American Motors plant sites. The oldest housing is the brick and frame worker stock of Library Park, Columbus Park, Allendale and Uptown, with 1920s bungalows in Forest Park and Lincoln Park and post-war ranches west of Green Bay Road (WIS 31); raccoon, skunk and opossum carcasses turn up under those porches, detached garages and alley sheds. The deer live along the Pike River through Petrifying Springs Park in Somers, in Chiwaukee Prairie and the dunes south of the harbor in Pleasant Prairie, and in the Des Plaines River wetlands west of I-94 toward Bristol. They cross WIS 50 (75th Street), WIS 158 (52nd Street), WIS 165 (104th Street), County Trunk KR on the Racine line and I-94 itself, heaviest in the October to December rut, and end up on lawns in the Pleasant Prairie and Somers subdivisions and around the Paddock Lake and Salem Lakes chain of lakes.
The City of Kenosha's only published dead-animal instruction concerns streets. The Public Works Transportation page tells residents to report street debris, including animal carcasses and road kill, to the Street Division at 262-653-4070, weekdays 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., and sends after-hours street hazards to the Police Department non-emergency line, 262-656-1234, without saying whether a carcass call is dispatched before the next business day. Kenosha County's Division of Highways (262-857-1870, Bristol) publishes no carcass policy on its own page, the county Public Works page or the countywide FAQ; it is WisDOT's Highway Maintenance Manual 07-15-01 that assigns deer carcasses on county trunk highways to the county and on city streets to the city. Kenosha Police Department Policy 3.1 defines the contracted Animal Control Agent's work as vicious, injured, sick, disabled or stray animals and bite reports, and does not mention dead animals. The city's Collection and Drop Off waste pages list every accepted and prohibited material and never name an animal, so whether a bagged carcass may go in the brown cart is not published. Wis. Stat. § 95.50's 24-hour (April to November) and 48-hour (December to March) exposure limit binds the owner of livestock or a domestic animal, not a homeowner with a dead raccoon; for wildlife, DNR tells the owner to bury it on the property or double-bag it into the trash. Where the Street Division stops, the owner starts. Hiring it out means an independent operator, and none is confirmed covering Kenosha at present.
Communities around Kenosha: Downtown Kenosha, HarborPark, Uptown, Library Park, Columbus Park, Forest Park, Allendale, Wilson Heights, Lincoln Park, Washington Park, Roosevelt Park, Pleasant Prairie, Somers, Bristol, Paddock Lake, Salem Lakes, Twin Lakes.
Any private-property work in Kenosha would be done by an independent operator, if one is available for the address, and disposal is that operator's to arrange under the rule covering that species in that county. DNR's guidance for handling dead wildlife is gloves or an inverted bag, never bare hands. A raccoon, skunk, bat or fox that a person or pet has been in contact with is a question for the local health department.
What do people call about in Kenosha?
Common around Kenosha: raccoon and skunk under the porches, detached garages and alley sheds of Library Park, Columbus Park, Allendale and Uptown; squirrel and opossum in the attics of the older lakefront blocks and along the Kenosha County Bike Trail; deer along the Pike River through Somers, in Chiwaukee Prairie and the WIS 165 corridor in Pleasant Prairie, in the Des Plaines wetlands off I-94 near Bristol and along County Trunk KR, heaviest from October into December and again around the late-November gun deer season. Found one in a Kenosha yard? Start here. Odor, nothing in sight? The five places to check first.
What does dead animal removal cost in Kenosha?
Kenosha's waste pages run long lists of what the brown cart takes and what it will not, and an animal appears on neither list. The drop-off site at 1001 50th Street is the same story. So a homeowner who would rather handle it themselves cannot tell from the published rules whether they are allowed to, and an operator quoting the job is pricing disposal without a published answer either. The retrieval is its own question: an alley shed in Allendale is not the same work as a deer down in a Pleasant Prairie back yard. Both halves get settled on the call, by the operator, and neither appears on this page.
Nearby Wisconsin pages
The closest metros to Kenosha with their own pages, each with what that city publishes, the road split and the species people report.
Kenosha dead animal questions
Street debris in Kenosha includes animal carcasses. Which division takes that call, and when?
Kenosha contracts out its animal control. Does a carcass fall inside that contract?
Deer down on I-94, WIS 50 or County KR: does the same agency handle all three?
A skunk died under my deck in Kenosha. Does any public agency handle that?
The brown cart rules list what is accepted and what is banned. Where does a bagged animal land?
Is Kenosha County covered today?
Kenosha Dead Animal Removal
Call to discuss the situation. Availability for a Kenosha County address depends on current operator coverage; any price is quoted on the call.