I'm curious how you guys handle this. If I bury them on my 5 acres, it seems like something almost always digs them up. If I put them in a pile, they attract flies and can smell. Sometimes I'll throw a pile of pine needles over them. I'm probably keeping the area opposums happy.

Toss them on the freeway,people are used to seeing dead animals on the freeway.(JK).

I toss them on my burn pile.

It depends on different situations. If I can not dispose of them, I bury or leave the carcass where I catch them. If I am making a draw station, I pile them there. What I do often is place them at locations to check for larger predators. I check for prints in the dirt or snow. They make entertainment as today in coming home, there was a buzzard feeding on a possum I had placed on an approach on a hill.
I never though leave them exposed, as we have an idiot around here who dumps things he catches in plain sight. I can not figure this moron out, as he will leave animals out in the open, when there is brush or a bridge on the same road. In that, out of the way places, under dry bridges is out of the way, hidden, and you can keep track of predator visits.

As the weather warms, heat and maggots deal with the problem.

Compost the carcass. Get wood chips from utility or tree service and cover with the chips.

I do not do much wild animal trapping but when I do I dispatch them and put the in a old freezer I have and put them in the garbage. IF you shoot them do not leave above ground because of the lead in them. The lead will kill Eagles and many other raptors. That is way I put them in the garbage.

Depends on the animal. Moles go back into the hole they came out of. Mice, roadkill, etc goes to the landfill.

In a freezer until garbage day.

I compost most, bury some. Need to find better solutions though, something that can be done on the road and handle volume.


Does anyone throw them directly at the landfill or is this going through your trash pickup only?

All my carcasses return to the wild. I use them for draw stations. Everything always gets eaten even the coon and coyote. I put them out of the way so every day people never know they are there. I am in an area with much woods and swamp. Not farm fields and back lots. I make sure no domestic animals live anywhere near the drop zones. This seems to have improved the quality of my predator population over the past 5 or 6 years. Before that I put them in trash can on garbage day.

Maybe that's 1 of the reasons you catch so many bobcats. I suppose it brings in its share of skunk & opposum.

Most time I don't even set a trap near the car was drops. None of the bobcat were near them at all. Matter of fact with cameras on the carcass I don't have a single bobcat picture. Most of the carcasses are eaten by birds.

My partner burns his. I either send out in garbage or have a farming friend who likes watching eagles. On more than one occasion, I’ve had Eagles circling the truck as I drove in. They knew supper was coming. After 2 days, even the possums are gone.

Methods of disposal:

1. A large tractor with a 3 point hitch auger with a large diameter bit with a long shaft. Dig a hole, deposit a couple carcasses and toss in a bit of dirt. Repeat until half full. Then fill in completely with the front end loader.

2. Use a backhoe to dig a trench deep enough - about 4 feet. Deposit carcasses and cover with dirt as you move along the trench. Then fill as above.

3. Make a deal with the trash company. They may not be permitted to knowingly accept carcasses.

4. As this pandemic progresses, there will be starving people willing to buy carcasses.

5. When I do a big cleanup of raccoons, possums, and skunks on land managed for hunting, I make arrangements with the landowner for a bury pit, and then cover it over before I leave.

I’d use an auger if I had one. Sounds like a great idea.

I brought beavers to a landfill today. They charge, but the cost can be passed on. Great way to dispose of em when traveling to do adc work

Just curious, since this is on the ADC page, are we talking fur trapping carcasses, or from commercial ADC work ? All of our carcasses are frozen, then transported to the local landfill to be buried. It's very inexpensive, I can drop 450 pounds for 15.00 right now. I have a large piece of land and wanted to do a burial pit, mostly for deer I take for some local municipalities. I don't have a way to hold them over, and the landfill is 45 minutes each way. When I asked the DEC about burying on my own property, they politely informed me they would ticket me, for operating an unlicensed landfill. The same would go for a bait pile,(illegal dumping) or if I wanted to dispose of them in my residential refuse pick up. I have been doing the landfill thing for many years, mainly because I know it is legal, and I have a paper trail of where my carcasses go if ever needed. We also have another landfill close by, that uses an incinerator, instead of burial. I asked them about legally disposing there and they told me they had no permit to burn animal carcasses, and now that they know me...not to try and slip any in. LOL It's interesting to see that other states have different regulations that are much less stringent than ours.

I toss everything out back in nature where it came from. Any carcass I've thrown out would not stand the chance of laying there for 24 hours before it was completely a skeleton without hardly a trace of anything on it. There are these things called Ravens here.

Michigan ADC carcass disposal laws are different than yours. I know this because I just filed for my ADC permit today and read all the rules. I was referring to season carcasses when I first posted. I didn't read forum heading.

I'm curious about this. If you use a carcass pile. Dead animals start piling up, even 1 or 2 dead animals. It sits there for a week rotting out. Now a Fox or Yote comes along, and starts eating rancid meat. Does it affect the Fox & Yote ?? Are they able to tolerate eating rotting rancid carcasses ?