Dead Animal Removal in Port Washington, WI

Is dead animal removal free in Port Washington?

Port Washington publishes no dead-animal service, so there is no fee to look up and no free pickup to count on. The Street Division's page lists streets, alleys, sewers, signals, brush, leaves and snow; the Request For Service form offers no animal category; and the city's trash pages never mention a carcass. WisDOT sends a deer on a local road to the municipality, which leaves the Street Division at 262-284-5585, or the form's 'Other' box, as the place a city-street report goes, with no scope, charge or timing written down. On I-43 and the state highways, WisDOT's contractor clears the shoulder once the Ozaukee County Sheriff's Office has the location. The county letter routes belong to the county highway department, which publishes nothing on carcasses. A yard, deck or crawl space sits outside all of those channels. Anything on private property is the owner's responsibility; an independent operator covers Ozaukee County, and what they take on is confirmed on the call.

In the agencies' own words

“The Street Division maintains over 59 miles of streets, alleys, storm and sanitary sewers, streetlights, traffic signals, pavement markings, and street signs.”

“Other - Please Specify In Additional Information Section Below”

“The Street Yard accepts grass clippings, leaves, dead plants, weeds, etc.”

“Disposal of car-killed deer (CKD) from Wisconsin's roadways is a responsibility shared by all levels of government.”

“Our wildlife hospital is located in Milwaukee and we are able to admit patients by appointment from Milwaukee, Racine, and Ozaukee Counties.”

Quoted verbatim on 2026-10-18 from City of Port Washington Street Division, Department of Public Works, Trash & Recycling, Request For Service/Report a Concern, Police Department, Police FAQ and Police Contact pages, the 2026 Resident Information Guide and the 2025 Public Works Annual Report; City of Port Washington Code chapter 291 (Nuisances) on eCode360; WisDOT's Car-Killed Deer page; pages for the Ozaukee County Highway Department and the county Sheriff's Office; Wisconsin DNR pages on wildlife health, sick or dead deer, vehicle-killed deer and disposing of a carcass, its deer-waste site list with the map data behind it, and its EHD page (updated Oct. 12, 2026); the Wisconsin Humane Society Ozaukee Campus, Cremation Services, Wildlife Rehabilitation Center and Wildlife FAQs pages; population from U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts, July 1, 2025 estimate (V2025).

What the pages do not say: Whether the city will pick an animal up off a street or alley at all, and which crew would; whether it ever enters private property; any fee, curb set-out rule, species or size limit, or timing; whether a bagged carcass may go in a cart (the city's trash pages and 2026 Resident Information Guide never mention animals); how the section 291-3B nuisance clause is applied to a wild animal that died on its own on private land; whether WisDOT's contractor or the Street Division clears a deer from the stretches of WIS 32 and WIS 33 inside city limits; who holds the WisDOT CKD contract in Ozaukee County; any county highway reporting channel for a carcass on a letter route; which county highway number is current, since the county's own page lists 262-238-8331 while the city's 2026 guide prints 262-284-8331, and this page uses the county's; whether any Ozaukee County site accepts a deer carcass from a homeowner; and whether the WHS Ozaukee Campus accepts a found, unowned dead animal.

Who not to call: The city Street Yard at 333 N. Moore Road as a drop-off. Its accepted list runs to grass clippings, leaves, stumps, dead plants, weeds, sod, root balls, stone, brick, broken concrete and gravel, it is open to city residents only, and no animal appears anywhere on it; The Wisconsin Humane Society Ozaukee Campus in Saukville (262-377-7580) for a wild-animal carcass or a house call. Its cremation options are written around a pet's ashes, brought in by the owner, and no WHS page reviewed offers to collect an animal from a yard or a building; The Wisconsin DNR to haul a carcass off. Its page on sick or dead deer warns that staff usually cannot remove dead animals, deer among them, and its Wildlife Switchboard (608-267-0866) logs sick and dead wildlife for disease monitoring, collecting samples case by case.

Wildlife that is still alive but injured, ill or orphaned goes to a rehabilitator, and none of these numbers removes a carcass. The WHS Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Milwaukee admits Ozaukee County animals by appointment through 414-431-6204, except skunks, white-tailed deer and the other species DNR rules keep out of that building; for those, its FAQ points callers to the DNR for a referral.

For the statewide version of this breakdown, see our guide to who picks up dead animals in Wisconsin.

What do people call about in Port Washington?

Around Port Washington, expect raccoons along Sauk Creek, the bluff edges and the harbor, and beneath decks and garden sheds downtown; opossums and skunks in yards that back onto the Sauk Creek and Birchwood Hills preserves; squirrels and bats in attic spaces; and deer on the interstate, the state routes and the county roads, down the ravines and at the field edges toward Lion's Den Gorge, Saukville, Fredonia and Belgium. WisDOT puts most deer-vehicle collisions in October and November, during the breeding phase, and the police FAQ sets the rules for bow and crossbow hunting inside city limits. DNR's EHD page, updated Oct. 12, 2026, estimated around 140 reports of sick or dead deer with signs of epizootic hemorrhagic disease in Ozaukee County, where cases are suspected rather than confirmed, so a deer found dead in a yard this fall is worth reporting to DNR at 608-267-0866. Found one in a Port Washington yard? Start here. Odor, nothing in sight? The five places to check first.

Nearby Wisconsin pages

The closest metros to Port Washington with their own pages, each with what that city publishes, the road split and the species people report.

All Wisconsin pages →