Q. As anyone who has seen Miss Firecracker knows, the government used to hire people to scrape dead animals off the roads. And as anyone who has driven down US-23 lately knows, it doesn’t anymore. When did they stop?
A. The Washtenaw County Road Commission (WCRC) moves large animals, such as deer, from active roadways. The WCRC does not dispose of the carcasses. This has been its policy since 1992.
MDOT will clear roadkill on state trunklines, moving it out of the roadway in rural areas and disposing of it in urban ones.
Some rural areas have seen conflicts when road commissions deposit roadkill on state lands. The DNR considers this littering, but some road commissions believe that deer, both alive and dead, are the responsibility of the DNR.
Ann Arbor does not remove roadkill, nor does Ypsilanti. Saline removes roadkill from city streets, and Chelsea removes it from streets or lawn extensions.
Related: Roadkill Patrol
Los Angeles may be the most helpful city in this regard: it even collects dead animals (except for horses and cows) from private property, coming into someone’s home if needed.
Where governments don’t provide it, a web search for “dead animal removal” will find companies that do so for a fee.
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