Metro Atlanta

Dead Animal Removal in Forsyth County, Georgia

In unincorporated Forsyth County, Roads and Bridges removes dead animals from road rights of way. We found no county service for a dead wild animal in a yard, under a deck or in a crawl space. Unincorporated Forsyth County's code bars burying wildlife outside agricultural zoning.

One number for Georgia. Calls reach this site's routing line, which passes them to an independent operator where one covers the area. We remove nothing ourselves, and an operator for your part of Forsyth County is not guaranteed.

On a road, street or public land

Roads and Bridges lists "removal of dead animals in rights of way" in the same sentence as pothole patching, mowing, tree trimming and ditch repair. The division maintains approximately 1,200 miles of asphalt and 30 miles of gravel road across the county. The Sheriff's Office sends road reports there: "You will need to contact Roads and Bridges at 770-781-2155." Neither page states a fee. For a state route, Georgia law gives the Department of Transportation the duty to remove dead animals within the rights of way of highways maintained wholly or partly with state funds (O.C.G.A. 4-5-4). We found no GDOT page that sets out a dead-animal reporting line, and none of the Forsyth pages we read prints a GDOT number.

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

We found no Forsyth County service that collects a dead wild animal from a yard or anywhere else on private property. Section 14-46 of the county's animal control code says: "All dead animals shall be disposed of within 24 hours of the death by the owner, agent or custodian within the requirements of Georgia law and in accordance with any rules and regulations promulgated by the Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture and the county board of health." That 24-hour disposal limit is county law for unincorporated Forsyth County. The section is written around an animal's owner, agent or custodian, and we found no county page explaining how it applies to a wild animal that dies on someone's lot. Georgia's Dead Animal Disposal Act has a 24-hour disposal rule of its own, but the Act defines "dead animals" as livestock, animals from licensed pet and kennel businesses, commercially processed animals and wildlife-exhibition animals. A wild animal that dies on your property is not on that list (see Georgia dead animal laws).

For an animal under a deck, in a crawl space or in a garage, we found no county route. For a problem with wildlife, the Sheriff's page gives Georgia DNR's number, 770-535-5700, which is a referral about live animals; we found no DNR page offering to collect a carcass. A dead raccoon, opossum, skunk or squirrel you can see and reach without cutting into anything is the kind of call this number is for; the routing line passes it to an independent operator where one covers the area. For a dead bear, alligator, hawk, eagle, owl or other bird of prey, call DNR (1-800-366-2661); DNR also asks for a call about a protected species such as a bald eagle, and we found no Georgia guidance on a bear or alligator found dead on private land. Bats: DPH says it is best never to handle any bat; if a person or pet may have been exposed, call the county health department. If the smell is coming from inside a finished wall, read dead animal smell in a wall. Nothing arranged through this site involves opening drywall, plaster or a ceiling.

A dead deer in Forsyth County

A deer on a county road right of way goes to Roads and Bridges at 770-781-2155. We found no county service for a deer in a yard. Georgia's deer carcass rule (Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 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. Burial is on that state list, and unincorporated Forsyth County's code separately bars burying wildlife outside agricultural zoning, so check both before you dig. We found no guidance on how the rule applies to a deer that dies on its own in a yard. Ask DNR's Wildlife Resources Division: 1-800-366-2661. More on dead deer removal and a dead deer in your yard.

Trash, landfill and burial

In unincorporated Forsyth County, code 14-46 is specific about burial: "Except in property zoned agricultural under the county's unified development code, no horse, cow, ox, pig, sheep, goat, ostrich, llama, emu, or wildlife shall be buried within the limits of the county." For the trash route, Georgia EPD classes dead animals as putrescible solid waste, and whether a cart, hauler or landfill takes a carcass is up to that hauler or facility. None of the Forsyth County pages we read addresses carcasses in household garbage, so ask your hauler first. The statewide picture is in how to dispose of a dead animal.

What Forsyth County's code adds

Animal services in Forsyth County run through the Sheriff's Office, whose Animal Control line is 770-781-2138, and the county's dead-animal answers sit in its Animal Services FAQ. The FAQ points road cases to the county's Roads and Bridges division. The private-property rules for unincorporated Forsyth County are in section 14-46 of the county code, which Municode shows with Ordinance 11-L, dated November 2, 2023, in its history. Besides the 24-hour disposal limit for an animal's owner, agent or custodian, that section holds the burial ban, whose list runs from horses and cows through ostriches, llamas and emus before it ends on wildlife. Its exception is property zoned agricultural under the county's unified development code. On a lot zoned for anything else, the code rules out burying a wild animal on site.

Pages for the animal or the place you found it

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