Dead Animal Removal in Altoona, PA

Why Altoona Has the Dead-Animal Calls It Does

Altoona sits against the Allegheny Front in Blair County, anchoring roughly 123,000 residents in a narrow valley the Pennsylvania Railroad built around the Horseshoe Curve. The Front itself — a steep, continuous escarpment running the county's western edge — is a major wildlife corridor, and Wopsononock Mountain, Brush Mountain, Canoe Creek State Park, and the Juniata River headwaters push deer, bear, and turkey into the valley's developed ground. The city's railroad-era housing stock is dense, old, and built on tight lots, which produces the attic, cellar, and reachable wall-void recovery work typical of an industrial-era town, while the surrounding townships toward Martinsburg and Roaring Spring generate farm and outbuilding calls. Deer-vehicle collisions concentrate on I-99, US-22, and US-220.

Common species calls in greater Altoona: Most-called species across Blair County: deer (Allegheny Front and Brush Mountain corridors onto I-99 and US-22, peak Oct-Dec rut), raccoon (Altoona's railroad-era housing stock; primary PA rabies vector), groundhog, skunk, opossum, and squirrel. Black bear activity is routine along the Front and the Wopsononock and Blue Knob uplands.

Pickup jurisdiction in Altoona: Blair County does not operate a county health department; it is served by the Blair County State Health Center (615 Howard Avenue, Altoona) under the Pennsylvania Department of Health. Altoona's Public Works Highway Yard picks up deceased small game animals, including cats, on city-owned streets and rights-of-way and routes deceased dogs to the Animal Control Officer; PennDOT covers I-99, US-22, and US-220. Private property is the owner's responsibility. For large game such as deer, bear or elk the city's form points residents to the Pennsylvania Game Commission (1-833-PGC-HUNT); a dead deer on a state-maintained road is reported to PennDOT at 1-800-FIX-ROAD.

Neighborhoods in and around Altoona: Altoona, Hollidaysburg, Duncansville, Tyrone, Bellwood, Roaring Spring, Martinsburg, Claysburg, Williamsburg, Newry, Juniata, Lakemont.

All Altoona field work is performed by independent partner operators, following the Pennsylvania Domestic Animal Act (PA Department of Agriculture) and PA DOH rabies-vector protocols (PA DOH rabies-vector guidance).