Metro Atlanta

Dead Animal Removal in Cobb County, Georgia

In unincorporated Cobb County, county code makes Cobb County Animal Services and Cobb DOT responsible for dead animals in county-road rights-of-way, and reports go to the 911 non-emergency line. We found no county service that collects a dead wild animal from a yard, deck or crawl space. U.S. highways and state routes are GDOT's, and cities maintain their own roads.

Calls about an animal on private property in Cobb reach this site's routing line, which passes them to an independent operator where one covers the area; price and availability are settled on the call.

Covers: Unincorporated Cobb County. Inside a city (Cobb DOT's page lists Acworth, Austell, Kennesaw, Marietta, Powder Springs and Smyrna), start with that city.

On a road, street or public land

Section 10-7 of Cobb's code gives the job on county roads to Cobb County Animal Services (CCAS) and the Cobb County Department of Transportation, for carcasses “found within the rights-of-way of all county roads maintained either totally or in part from county funds.” We found no dead-animal request type in Cobb's SeeClickFix catalogue. Its road-debris entry says: “For dead animal removal, please reach out to 911’s non-emergency line at 770-499-3911 ext. 5.” Two other kinds of road run through Cobb. Cobb DOT's roadway page says GDOT “owns/maintains interstates, U.S. highways and state routes,” Cobb Parkway (US 41/SR 3) among them, and state law, O.C.G.A. 4-5-4, gives GDOT the duty for dead animals within the rights of way of state-funded highways. And cities maintain the roads inside their boundaries.

In a yard, under a deck or in a crawl space

We found no Cobb County service that collects a dead wild animal from private property. The code duty stops at county-road rights-of-way, and the solid-waste code says trash collectors are not required to take dead animals (section 102-72(b), quoted below). Section 10-7(c) requires disposal by burial or incineration in a county-approved incinerator within 12 hours after death or discovery (unless the carcass is properly refrigerated or frozen), and buried carcasses at least three feet below ground level (no more than eight) with not less than three feet of earth over the carcass. Section 10-7(a), headed “Abandonment of dead animals,” binds “any person who owns or is caring for an animal,” and we found no county page explaining how the section applies to a wild animal that dies on your lot. We found no statewide Georgia rule that sets a deadline for a homeowner to remove a wild animal carcass, so the 12-hour window is Cobb County law, not a statewide rule. See a dead animal in the yard.

Under a deck, in a crawl space, in the garage or in an attic, we found no county service for a dead wild animal. These are the calls this number is set up for, where the animal can be reached without cutting into a wall, ceiling or finished floor. An odor from inside a sealed wall is something we cover only as information, in our article on a dead animal smell in a wall; calls routed from this site do not involve opening walls. See under a deck or in a crawl space and in an attic or garage.

A dead deer in Cobb County

A deer in a county-road right-of-way falls under the CCAS and Cobb DOT duty in section 10-7, which states no size limit. In a yard we found no county service for a deer. Georgia's deer carcass rule, 391-4-2-.19, in force since June 25, 2025, makes it unlawful to dispose of a deer carcass anywhere other than the property on which the deer was killed unless an approved method is used; the approved methods include a commercial deer processor, a permitted solid waste landfill, burial, incineration, rendering or composting. Neither the rule nor the DNR pages we read say how it applies to a deer that dies on its own in a yard; ask DNR's Wildlife Resources Division: 1-800-366-2661. See dead deer removal.

Trash, landfill and burial

Cobb's solid-waste code, section 102-72(b), says “Collectors shall not be required to collect, remove or transport dead animals,” so ask your collector before you set one out. If you bury an animal on your own land, do it only where local code allows it. Georgia EPD's solid-waste rules exempt an owner disposing of household waste on land they own if it does not harm public health; the exemption is for owners, not tenants. We found no statewide burial depth for a wild animal. For unused deer parts, DNR's CWD guidance says they “should be left on the property where the deer was killed, sent to a landfill, or buried deep enough to prevent scavenging.”

Who does what on Cobb's roads

Cobb's roads fall into three groups. Cobb DOT's roadway maintenance page says the Georgia Department of Transportation “owns/maintains interstates, U.S. highways and state routes as well as the bridges located along these facilities,” and its examples include Cobb Parkway (US 41/SR 3), Austell Road and Roswell Road. The same page says “a city maintains the roads located within its boundary” and that “approximately 704 miles of road in the county are located within a city,” listing Acworth, Austell, Kennesaw, Marietta, Powder Springs and Smyrna. County roads in unincorporated Cobb are where code section 10-7 puts the dead-animal duty on CCAS and Cobb DOT. The code we read is Municode Supplement 53, codified through November 20, 2025; section 10-7 was last amended on October 24, 2023, and its 12-hour and burial terms are described above.

Pages for the animal or the place you found it

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