Allentown and Lehigh County
Dead Animal Removal in Allentown, PA
Private property only — one in a city street goes to the Allentown Office of Animal Control or the 311 Citizen Problem Reporter.
Request removal online ↓Something died and you need it found and gone
We find the animal, remove it, and deal with what it leaves behind. Inside a wall, in the attic, under a deck or out in the yard, including deer. Houses, rentals and businesses across Allentown and the surrounding Lehigh Valley.
Calling gets you a price on that call. The form is here if you would rather write it out.
Start here
Where is the animal
Most people who call cannot see it. They can only smell it. Find the description closest to your situation and that is enough for us to work from on the phone.
Inside a wall or ceiling
The smell is strongest in one room and gets worse when the heat or air runs. Locating it means working the cavity from the outside in before anything gets opened.
Attic or crawl space
Squirrels and birds above, groundhogs and rats below. Insulation holds odor long after the animal is gone, so finding it is only the first half of the job.
Basement or garage
Usually reachable without cutting anything. The work is locating the animal in stored clutter and dealing with what it left on the slab.
You can smell it but cannot find it
The most common call we take. There is a method to narrowing it down, and guessing wrong means opening a wall for nothing.
Yard, driveway or under a deck
Groundhog, opossum, cat, raccoon. Outdoor recovery is straightforward, though anything under a deck or shed usually means removing a board.
A dead deer on your property
Different size, different equipment, and a different question about whose responsibility it is depending on where the animal ended up.
Pricing
What actually drives the cost
We quote on the phone once we know what we are dealing with. Four things move the number, and none of them is how far we drove.
Whether anything has to be opened
An animal lying in a garage is a different job from one sealed inside a wall cavity. Whether it can be reached without cutting a finished surface is the single largest factor.
How long it has been there
Time changes the work. A recent carcass is a removal. One that has been in place for a couple of weeks has usually soaked into something that also has to come out.
Size of the animal
A bird in a soffit and a deer at the treeline need different equipment and a different amount of labor to get off the property.
How hard it is to reach
Crawl space clearance, a finished basement ceiling, or a deck built low to the ground all add time. So does anything that has to be moved to get in.
We do not publish a price list, because a number set before anyone has heard your situation is a number that gets revised on site. Call and describe it and you will get a real figure.
Before you call anyone
Who handles it in Allentown
The first question is not what kind of animal it is. It is where the animal is, because that decides who you should be calling. Allentown publishes real channels for this, and they are worth trying before you pay anybody.
On public ground in the city
The city's published contact for roadkill is the Allentown Office of Animal Control on 610-437-8729, Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The 311 Citizen Problem Reporter also carries a Dead Animal option.
On a state highway
State roads are PennDOT rather than the city. PennDOT asks that dead animals on a state road or bridge be reported on 1-800-FIX-ROAD, which is monitored during business hours.
A deer, bear or elk anywhere
Those are Game Commission animals. Road killed deer go to the Game Commission dispatch center on 1-833-PGC-WILD, which unlike the other two numbers is staffed around the clock.
On your own property
Worth knowing: the city's 311 form asks whether the animal is on your property and whether they have permission to come and get it, so a yard pickup is worth requesting. It runs on business hours and the city does not publish a response time.
Where we are genuinely the only option is inside the building. No city crew is going to open a wall, lift attic insulation or go into a crawl space to find something, and those are most of the calls we take. If the animal is out in the open and a weekday pickup works for you, try the city first. We would rather say that than take a job you did not need.
Coverage
Where we go
Allentown first, from Center City and the East Side through the West End and South Allentown. Beyond the city we cover much of Lehigh County and the neighboring Northampton County communities.
Straight answers
What people ask before booking
Do I need to know where the animal is before I call?
No. Not knowing is the usual reason people call. Tell us which room smells worst, when it started, and whether it changes when the heating or cooling runs. That is enough to work with.
Will the city take care of it?
Sometimes, and it is worth asking first. Allentown publishes 610-437-8729 for the Office of Animal Control, which handles roadkill on weekdays between 8:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., and the 311 Citizen Problem Reporter has a Dead Animal option that asks whether the animal is on your property. What no city crew will do is open a wall or go through attic insulation to find something.
Is the smell a health problem?
At normal household levels the odor is unpleasant rather than dangerous. The practical reasons to deal with it quickly are flies, staining, and the fact that soaked insulation or drywall becomes a bigger repair the longer it sits.
What happens to the area after the animal is out?
Removal includes the fluids and the material they soaked into. Saturated insulation comes out rather than getting sprayed over. Odor fades once the source and the contaminated material are both gone, though a heavily soaked cavity can hold a trace for a while.
Do you work with landlords and property managers?
Yes. A good share of Allentown calls come from someone managing a property they do not live in. We can coordinate access with a tenant and bill the owner.
What does it cost?
It depends on where the animal is and what has to be opened to reach it. We quote on the phone once we know those two things, and we would rather give you an accurate number than a low one that changes on site.
Get it handled
Still deciding
If you have read this far you probably have a smell you cannot place or an animal you cannot reach. Either one is a phone call rather than a research project, and you will get a real number on that call.
Call 610-686-8980 Back to the form
Prefer email? The contact page has the same form and a note on what to have ready before you call.