Metro Atlanta

Dead Animal Removal in Gwinnett County, Georgia

Gwinnett County's Animal Welfare and Enforcement removes dead animals from public property. From a home, it picks up only small animal carcasses that have been put in a plastic bag and placed roadside near the right-of-way. County code places other carcasses on private property with the property owner or possessor.

For an animal still on your property in Gwinnett, calls to this number 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.

On a road, street or public land

On a county road, in a park, at a public school or anywhere else that is public property, Gwinnett Animal Welfare and Enforcement removes the animal. Send the location to DeadAnimalRemoval@GwinnettCounty.com or call 770.339.3200; the county page says “Dead animal removal typically occurs on Monday through Friday.” State roads are handled separately. The same page says: “To report dead animals on state roadways, call the Georgia Department of Transportation at 404.631.1990 during regular business hours.” GDOT's own contact page lists that number as its general main line, and we found no dead-animal page on GDOT's website. Under state law, O.C.G.A. 4-5-4, GDOT's duty covers dead animals within the rights of way of highways maintained wholly or partly with state funds.

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

Gwinnett collects from a home in one form only. The county page says “Small animal carcasses will only be picked up from private property if contained in a plastic bag and placed roadside near the right-of-way,” and code section 10-12 says the same for “any dog, cat or small animal carcass” from a private residence. Otherwise the code's rule applies: “Carcasses on private property must be disposed of by the property owner or possessor in accordance with state laws and regulations.” For an animal you cannot bag, cannot reach or would rather not touch, a private removal service is the alternative. Our page on a dead animal in the yard covers both routes.

Under a deck, in a crawl space, garage or attic, we found no county service that collects a dead wild animal from there; to use the roadside pickup, someone would first have to get the animal out, bag it and carry it to the road. A private call fits there, as long as the animal can be reached without opening a wall, ceiling or finished floor. For a smell coming from inside a closed wall, read our article on a dead animal smell in a wall; calls routed from this site do not involve cutting into walls. See under a deck or in a crawl space.

A dead deer in Gwinnett County

We found no Gwinnett service that collects a deer from a yard. The private-property pickup is written for small animal carcasses in a plastic bag, and the solid-waste code lists “dead animals larger than ten pounds” as unacceptable waste for residential and commercial service providers. On public property, Animal Welfare removes dead animals and the page states no size limit; on a state roadway, Gwinnett points you to GDOT. Georgia's deer disposal rule (391-4-2-.19, effective 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. For a deer that died on its own in a yard, we found no guidance; ask DNR's Wildlife Resources Division: 1-800-366-2661. See dead deer removal.

Trash, landfill and burial

Gwinnett's solid-waste code, section 82-55, lists “dead animals larger than ten pounds” among unacceptable waste for residential and commercial service providers. That does not promise a hauler will take a lighter one, so ask yours before you put a bagged carcass in the cart. Georgia EPD's rules list dead animals as putrescible waste, which construction and demolition landfills do not take. Dumping a carcass on someone else's land, on public land or in water is littering under O.C.G.A. 16-7-43, a misdemeanor, unless the owner or tenant of that property consents.

A dead pet is a different case

For a dead dog or cat, county code section 10-12 allows the same bagged roadside pickup. The Animal Welfare page also says owners may bring a deceased pet to the Bill Atkinson Animal Welfare Center for disposal, and that fees may apply; it gives no amount. That drop-off is a pet service.

How Gwinnett's page and code fit together

Gwinnett splits its rules between a service page and the county code. The Animal Welfare page describes the service: removal from public property, the bagged roadside pickup from homes, the request address DeadAnimalRemoval@GwinnettCounty.com, the phone line 770.339.3200 and the Monday-to-Friday schedule. Code section 10-12 (Ord. AW-2020 of December 15, 2020) sets the rules underneath. It requires any dog, cat or small animal carcass picked up from a private residence to be bagged and delivered to the right-of-way, places carcasses on private property with the property owner or possessor, and leaves dead livestock, “including horses, cattle and any other large animal,” to the animal owner or property owner. The solid-waste chapter adds the ten-pound line in section 82-55. This page describes the county's own published service. If your address is inside a city in Gwinnett, check with that city as well; we did not read city pages here.

Pages for the animal or the place you found it

Nearby areas

• DeKalb CountyMetro Atlanta
• North FultonMetro Atlanta
• Forsyth CountyMetro Atlanta