This summer, a small carcass of a dead animal sat on a road near my house. Each time I drove over it, it turned my stomach.
Bigger than a squirrel, it was likely was a possum that came up to the road from a nearby creek. As the days went by, the carcass became smaller until eventually it was hauled away by a city crew.
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When a deer is hit by a motor vehicle in Illinois, there is an option for individuals to claim it and haul it away—as long as an electronic form is filed with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.
In these situations, the dead animal’s meat may turn into dishes such as deer sausage or Three Amigo Stew, which was the people’s choice winner at last year’s West Virginia Roadkill Cook-off.
Otherwise, the animal’s skin could be used to make clothing similar to the kind worn by a Boston woman who collects roadkill skins to make fashionable fur pieces.
Dead animals on the streets of Naperville are collected by work crews and stored in a freezer until they are picked up by an outside company that cremates the animal.
Removing roadkill from our streets is certainty a dirty job, but someone has to do it.
Each week, the Humane Society estimates that millions of wild animals are struck down by vehicles in the United States.
Here in Naperville that figure is considerably less. City officials estimate that they handle about 200 calls per year from residents concerning dead animals in the street.
Most people call, Christine Schwartzhoff City of Naperville Operations Team Leader explained, because they don’t want their kids to see it or fear the dead animal will attract a coyote. For others, it is the smell that gets to them.
“We have a quick response team, which is typically one or two people who aren’t assigned to other crews that day who respond to calls from residents,” she added.
These quick response crews also tackle issues such as a removing a branch covering a stop sign or cleaning up glass in the road.
“We typically don’t bring in a crew to pick up a dead animal after hours unless it is something like a deer on a major road,” she added.
If a call is received before 3 p.m., crews most likely can take care of it that day, Schwartzhoff said.
In 2014, 230 animals were picked up by the City’s public works quick response crews.
Of that, 30 were skunks, which are tracked separately by the City. Crews picked up raccoons, possums, squirrels, and occasionally a deer.
Dead birds, Schwartzhoff noted, can be put in bag and disposed of in the regular garbage.
“We also don’t pick up dead animals on private property,” she added.
For Naperville Township residents, Highway Commissioner Stan Wojtasiak said the township gets about one call a week about dead animals on the road.
In the past, the township received calls about deer along Naperville-Plainfield Road and Book Road near Springbrook Prairie. However, since the Forest Preserve has culled the deer there hasn’t been a call about a dead deer for six to eight months, he added.
“Mostly, it is skunks and raccoons,” Wojtasiak said. While the township’s road crews pick up dead animals on the main roads, in subdivisions he said his crews rely on homeowners to relay dead animal locations.
Over the years, Wojtasiak has noticed a reduction in the number of dead animals on township roads.
“I’m not sure that the animals are moving out, but the amount of dead animals we are picking up is diminishing,” he added.
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Still there are precautions that drivers can take to reduce the risk of hitting an animal. That includes being cautious on two-lane roads — especially those that border woods, fields, or streams or at dawn and dusk.
In addition, the Humane Society warns that if there is one animal, there are probably more — maybe a young animal following their mother or a male animal pursuing a female.
Cathy Janek is a freelance columnist for the Naperville Sun.