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Wisconsin statewide

Dead Deer Removal in Wisconsin

Dead deer removal in Wisconsin starts with the road class: WisDOT's Car Killed Deer contractor on Interstate, US and state highways, the county on county trunk highways, the town, village or city on local roads, and the property owner on a yard, a driveway or a wooded lot. A car-killed deer can also be claimed by the driver, after registering it with the DNR.

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
  • βœ“ Wisconsin statewide Β· one number
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Quick answer

Who handles dead deer removal in Wisconsin?

Road class answers this until the pavement ends. On the shoulder of an Interstate, US or state highway, WisDOT's car-killed deer contractor; in the traveled lane, 911. On a county trunk highway, the county highway department. On a city street, the city, under its own policy. On private property, the owner. Past that property line no Wisconsin agency takes the removal on, so Wisconsin Dead Animal Removal reaches an independent operator if one is available for the address; no operator's coverage is confirmed in Wisconsin yet, so whether a deer can be taken on, and the price, are settled on the call. Call (414) 928-2653.

What the job involves

What dead deer removal covers, and what it does not

A deer, the species this page is about

Two things set the deer apart. It is the only carcass in this state with a written state program behind it, and for most homeowners it is far heavier than anything else they will ever have to get moved. That program stops at the highway right-of-way. Past that line, where the deer fell is what sorts it into a sheriff's call, a county call, a city call or an operator's quote.

Removal is carried out by independent operators. Their permits, their insurance and their answer for how the carcass is disposed of are their own, and none of it is checked or vouched for here. This site sells advertising and puts the call through. What any one operator will take on comes out in that conversation, not here.

Whose job is a dead deer in Wisconsin?

Road class decides it, and that split is one of the few pieces of this subject the state writes down. WisDOT's Highway Maintenance Manual 07-15-01 puts it in one sentence: "Counties are responsible for removing deer carcasses on county highways. Towns, villages and cities are responsible for removing deer carcasses on their local roads." The state system itself runs on car-killed deer contracts, which cover less than the name suggests, and no Wisconsin statute pushes any of this onto a homeowner's yard.

  • Interstates, US and state highways: the WisDOT contract requires its car-killed deer vendor to clear a deer from the shoulder and right-of-way no later than two business days after a report, and the manual does not require pickup on weekends or holidays. A deer in the traveled lane is outside the contract: call 911. Off the lane, WisDOT sends the report to the county sheriff's non-emergency line and publishes no carcass number of its own.
  • County trunk highways (the lettered routes): the county, under the same WisDOT allocation, which is written for deer. WisDOT lists a highway commissioner for all 72 counties.
  • City streets: the city, under whatever it publishes. Milwaukee takes reports at (414) 286-CITY (2489); Madison through Report a Problem or 608-266-4430; Kenosha's Street Division at 262-653-4070; Racine's Customer Service at 262-636-9171. Each city page quotes its own wording.
  • Your own ground, from the side lot to the crawl space: yours to arrange, whether it is behind a Milwaukee bungalow, under a deck, in a garage or beneath a Madison ranch. Wisconsin DNR's guidance for a dead wild animal is to bury it on your property or double-bag it into the trash; Β§ 95.50's disposal deadline covers livestock and domestic animals, not wildlife. That private-property case is what this site exists for.

The agency-by-agency breakdown, with the quotes, is in the guide to who picks up dead animals in Wisconsin, and the deer-specific version, including the car-killed deer registration rule and the CWD guidance, is in the <a href="/guides/dead-deer-roadkill-wisconsin/">dead deer guide</a>.

Step by step

A dead deer removal call, start to finish

  1. Confirm whose ground it is on: traveled lane (911), state highway shoulder (county sheriff non-emergency), county trunk highway (county highway department), city street (the municipality), or private property. Only the last one continues on this call.
  2. If you hit it and want to keep it, register it with the DNR first, online through Go Wild or at 608-267-7691, before moving it. The driver has first claim.
  3. On private property the terrain is the variable: flat lawn, a slope, standing water, thick woods, and how close a vehicle can actually get. Those are the details an operator prices from, and whether deer fall within a given operator's scope is settled on the same call.
  4. Check the disposal route. The DNR prefers a landfill or transfer station; a single carcass may be buried on the land where it died, deep enough to stop scavengers; and the DNR recommends against moving a whole carcass outside the county or an adjacent county.
  5. Recovery and disposal by the operator, quoted before the visit and invoiced on completion.
Cost in Wisconsin

Who sets the price for a dead deer removal

Whoever takes the job puts a number on it during the call, once they know what died, where it sits, what it will take to reach it and what has to happen to it afterward. Nothing is printed here, because no operator's rates in this state have been checked, and a number invented to fill the gap would commit somebody else to it.

The quote comes on the call; the invoice comes from whoever does the work, not from this site.

When to call

What waiting costs you

Call early. Fluids move down into whatever the animal is lying on, and soil, insulation and framing all hold onto them, so every day it sits usually means more material leaves with the carcass than would have on the first one. One call comes before this one: if anybody in the house or a pet made contact with a raccoon, skunk, bat or fox, your local health department takes that question.

Questions

What callers ask about dead deer removal

Who handles a dead deer on a Wisconsin state highway?
WisDOT, through a Car Killed Deer contractor it hires county by county. The contract 'requires vendors to dispose of deer carcasses on Interstates, U.S. highways and state highways, no later than two business days after receiving report,' weekends and listed holidays excluded. The contractor does not take a deer lying on the road itself: 'Deer carcasses on the road or highway' head the manual's list of what is not the CKD contractor's responsibility, and no Wisconsin source we found names who clears one instead. What is published is the phone call, and it is not WisDOT's: 'If the remains are on the active, traveled portion of a highway, call 911.' Off the lane on a state highway, 'report the location to the local county sheriff department for disposal, using their non-emergency phone number.' Give a mile post, the intersecting highway, the lane direction and the nearest address; WisDOT asks for exactly that.
Who removes a dead deer from private property in Wisconsin?
The owner arranges it. WisDOT's program never leaves the right-of-way, the DNR says it lacks the resources to remove dead deer, and the DNR's advice to a landowner is to '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 (this is not guaranteed).' The cities that answer the yard question say the same: Madison Engineering says 'City crews cannot go onto private property' and lists hiring a private company as an option; Eau Claire will retrieve a deer only 'if it's on the boulevard' after you drag it there on a tarp; Waukesha County's highway department says 'If the deer is located on private property, we are unable to remove the deer.' An independent operator does it for a quoted price where one is available for the address, which is checked on the call at (414) 928-2653.
Can I keep a deer I hit with my car in Wisconsin?
Yes, and the driver has first claim. The DNR: 'Any person may claim a deer, bear or turkey that has been accidentally killed by a motor vehicle. The driver of a vehicle that collides with and kills a deer, bear or turkey has first priority to the carcass.' Register it before you touch it: 'Register your vehicle-killed deer or turkey prior to possessing or removing the deer or turkey from the scene,' online through Go Wild with your DNR customer ID, or by phone to DNR law enforcement at 608-267-7691. After that no tag is needed, but the carcass must still follow the chronic wasting disease transport rules. Statute: Wisconsin Statute 29.349(2). A car-killed bear is phone-only, for a tag. The claim rule the DNR publishes names deer, bear and turkey and nothing else, so do not read it as covering whatever else a vehicle hits.
Can a Wisconsin homeowner dispose of a dead deer?
Yes, within the DNR's rules. Deer carcasses are solid waste under Wisconsin Statute 289.01(33), and the DNR says landfilling is the preferred option, so call the landfill or transfer station first because 'not all landfills and transfer stations accept deer carcass waste.' A single, residentially generated carcass may be buried on the property where it died with the landowner's permission, 'deep enough to prevent excavation by scavengers' and never in a wetland; no depth in feet is published anywhere in Wisconsin. Curbside pickup is allowed only 'if allowed by your local solid waste provider or municipality,' double-bagged, and a whole deer does not fit a cart. It is illegal to dump carcass waste 'on public lands, roadways or private property without permission.' Winnebago County waives its landfill scale fee from October 1 to December 31, for county residents who process their own deer; whether that program takes a deer that died in a yard is not stated.
Does the 24-hour or 48-hour rule apply to a dead deer?
Not on its face. Wisconsin Statute 95.50 gives whoever owns or controls a carcass, or the land it lies on, 24 hours from April to November and 48 hours from December to March before it may not be left exposed to dogs or wild animals. But that section defines carcass as 'the dead body, or any part of the dead body, of a livestock animal or other domestic animal.' A wild deer is governed by Chapter 29 and DNR rules instead. Whether 95.50 could ever reach a wild animal is not resolved by any agency statement we found, so this site does not claim it either way. Local ordinances can set their own clocks: Appleton declares an unburied carcass a health nuisance after 24 hours, Milwaukee's code gives the person in charge of a dead animal 12 hours, and Eau Claire allows no dead animal to be kept more than seven days.
Does chronic wasting disease change what I can do with the carcass?
It changes where it can go. The DNR's current carcass page 'recommends not transporting whole deer carcasses to areas outside the county or adjacent county where the animal was harvested.' An older DNR disposal FAQ described a restriction instead; the two are not reconciled, so this site follows the current page and says recommends. One rule nearby is firm rather than advisory, and it runs the other direction: a whole carcass brought in from another state is not allowed into Wisconsin unless it reaches a licensed meat processor or permitted taxidermist within 72 hours. The county baiting and feeding bans that follow a CWD detection renew with each new positive and are published as a DNR map, which is where to check your county rather than here. None of this decides who picks the deer up; it governs transport and disposal.
When are dead deer calls heaviest in Wisconsin?
The rut, October into December, when deer move most and cross I-94, I-43, I-39/90 and the county trunks, and the nine-day gun season in late November. The DNR asks the public to notify it of 'a sick or dead deer or multiple dead deer in any one area' through the Wildlife Switchboard at 608-267-0866, and says a deer killed on a roadway does not need to be reported for health purposes. A deer that dies in a yard or a back lot in November is the private-property case this page is about, and it is quoted on the call like any other.

Statewide questions on law, safety and process are on the Wisconsin FAQ.

Dead Deer Removal in Wisconsin: the rest happens on the phone

Describe it once. Whether an independent operator can take it on, and the price, are settled on that call.

πŸ“ž (414) 928-2653 Send the details