Dead Animal Removal in Philadelphia, PA

Why Philadelphia Has the Dead-Animal Calls It Does

Philadelphia is the Commonwealth's largest city and its own county — 1.6 million residents across roughly 134 square miles of the densest housing stock in Pennsylvania. The Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers bracket the city, and an unusually large urban park system drives wildlife pressure that surprises people: Fairmount Park, the Wissahickon Valley, Pennypack Park, and Cobbs Creek push deer, raccoon, opossum, and groundhog directly into adjacent blocks. The rowhome stock — much of it pre-1940, with shared walls, shallow crawlspaces, and accessible attics and cornices — is what makes Philadelphia calls distinctive: a carcass in an accessible attic or cornice void is a recovery job rather than a pickup. Deer-vehicle collisions cluster on Roosevelt Boulevard (US-1), I-95, and the Schuylkill Expressway (I-76) where they run alongside park land.

Common species calls in greater Philadelphia: Most-called species in Philadelphia: raccoon (dense pre-1940 rowhome stock, chimneys and cornices; primary PA rabies vector), squirrel (attic and soffit access from mature street trees), opossum (under porches and decks), groundhog (vacant lots and park edges), and deer along the Wissahickon, Pennypack, and Fairmount Park corridors. Cornice and attic recoveries are common here because of the rowhouse construction, while a carcass sealed inside a party wall is left in place, because removal operators do not cut into finished walls.

Pickup jurisdiction in Philadelphia: Philadelphia runs its own Department of Public Health (1101 Market Street) — one of only seven county-level health departments in Pennsylvania. Philadelphia's Department of Sanitation can remove a dead animal from the street through Philly311, but will not remove one from private property, including sidewalks. PennDOT handles I-95, I-76, and I-676. Private property — your rowhome attic, party wall, basement, or yard — is the property owner's responsibility. For a dead deer on a state-maintained road, PennDOT's removal line is 1-800-FIX-ROAD, or the request goes through the PennDOT Customer Care Center.

Neighborhoods in and around Philadelphia: Center City, South Philadelphia, Northeast Philadelphia, West Philadelphia, Germantown, Chestnut Hill, Manayunk, Roxborough, Fishtown, Mount Airy, Overbrook, Frankford.

All Philadelphia 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).