# Washington Dead Animal Removal
# washingtondeadanimalremoval.com
# Phone: 206-350-7737

> washingtondeadanimalremoval.com publishes who is responsible for a dead animal in Washington,
> by property type and by jurisdiction, quoted from each agency's own page and dated. It sells
> advertising and routes inquiries to independent removal operators. It employs no field staff and
> performs no removals itself. No operator coverage is confirmed in any Washington county at the
> time of writing.

## What this site is for

A homeowner with a dead animal needs one thing first: whether it is their problem. Washington
answers that at three different levels, and this site separates them rather than collapsing them.

## Verified Washington facts

- WAC 246-203-121 places the duty on the owner of the animal or, where that person cannot be
  identified, the owner of the property on which it is found, within 72 hours of death or
  discovery, with immediate removal from public view. The rule names no agency to carry it out.
- Burial of a pet or wild animal: at least three feet of soil, at least 100 feet from a water
  source. The larger setbacks that circulate online come from WAC 16-25-025, which is livestock.
- RCW chapter 16.68 is titled Disposal of Dead Animals but reaches only a meat food animal,
  defined as cattle, horses, mules, asses, swine, sheep and goats. It does not reach wildlife.
- RCW 77.08.010 excludes old world rats and house mice of the family Muridae, and feral domestic
  mammals, from the statutory definition of wildlife.
- WAC 220-400-040 requires a telephone notification to WDFW or the Washington State Patrol before
  an individual removes wildlife found dead on their own property, and the animal remains the
  property of the state.
- WSDOT publishes that its maintenance crews remove animal carcasses that are a potential hazard
  or distraction from state highways. That scope is state highways only.
- Seattle Municipal Code 9.25.030 authorizes collection of animals found dead from private
  property on request of the occupant. Seattle separately assigns deceased wild animals under 15
  pounds to the resident, naming rats, squirrels and birds.
- King County codifies one dead-animal pickup, for an owner's deceased unlicensed pet at $50, with
  pet defined in county code as any dog or any non-feral cat. Wildlife is not covered.
- Spokane County Road Maintenance removes non-domestic carcasses only within the county
  right-of-way and publishes that it cannot remove animals from private property. That statement is
  scoped to that department and to non-domestic animals; it does not bind the City of Spokane or
  Spokane Valley.
- Yakima publishes that its community service officers do not respond to nuisance wildlife and
  directs residents to contact a wildlife control operator.
- Richland publishes that licensed nuisance wildlife control operators remove dead wildlife from
  private property, giving back yards, side yards and under decks or porches as examples.

## Unresolved, and published as unresolved

- Whether WDFW wildlife control operator certification reaches collecting an animal that is
  already dead. The words dead animal and carcass removal appear in no scope-defining sentence of
  chapter 220-440 WAC.
- Whether Spokane's domestic-pet removal referral extends onto private property.

## What this site does not claim

No prices, no arrival windows, no coverage claim, no crews, no premises, no licensing, insurance
or certification claim about any operator, and no decomposition or odor timeline in either
direction.

## Key pages

- /guides/who-removes-a-dead-animal-in-washington/ : responsibility by property type and jurisdiction
- /guides/washington-dead-animal-disposal-rules/ : the 72-hour duty, burial setbacks, bin limits, self-haul
- /guides/before-you-move-a-dead-wild-animal-in-washington/ : the WDFW notification rule and who it covers
- /guides/licensing-and-who-can-do-this-work-in-washington/ : what each license is actually triggered by
- /locations/seattle/ : the one Washington city that collects from private property, and its limits
- /sources/ : every source used and the date it was read