The city recovers pets. The raccoon in your wall, the squirrel in the attic, the deer in the yard — that’s yours to deal with. Or ours: located, removed, and the smell treated at the source.
Tell us where it is and what you’ve noticed — you’ll know the price before any work starts.
You don’t need to know what the animal is. Most calls start as a smell and a guess — we take it from there.
Squirrels, raccoons, rats and mice, birds, and the rest of the usual suspects — found, removed, disposed of properly.
All services →Walls, attic, chimney, basement, crawl space — located first, opened minimally, removed completely.
Removal from the house →A worsening smell with nothing visible means a carcass hidden in a void. Pinpointing it is the specialty here.
Odor & carcass location →Yards and lots near the park corridors. Hauled off and disposed of the way Hennepin County’s guidance directs.
Dead deer removal →The whole city plus the immediate metro. One number, no district lines.
Service area →Minneapolis runs a genuinely good animal-services operation: report a dead animal through 311 and Animal Care & Control handles pickups — a program built around dead pets, so owners searching for a lost cat or dog can get answers. Carcasses on the public street get dealt with. That part works, it’s taxpayer-funded, and if your situation fits it, use it.
But wildlife that dies on your property is a different story. Hennepin County’s own disposal guidance tells residents to arrange proper disposal of a carcass on their land — and a deer can’t simply go in the trash cart at all. No city crew is tasked with the raccoon in your wall or the squirrel under your deck — on private property, arranging removal falls to the owner. That gap between what 311 covers and what your house needs is exactly what 612-662-5070 is for.
Where the animal (or the smell) is, how long it’s been there, and what kind of building. Priced up front.
Odor tracing, insect signs, and a methodical sweep — confirmed before anything gets opened.
Through the nearest real access — attic edge, chase, hatch. Carcass and nest material bagged and gone from your property.
Where it lay gets scrubbed with disinfectant and an odor neutralizer — the difference between an odor that fades on schedule and one that haunts the next thaw.
Most of this city went up before the Second World War: stucco over lath, balloon-framed walls that run open from basement to attic, brick chimneys with abandoned flues, and block foundations under back porches. A squirrel that falls down a wall cavity in a Kingfield four-square can end up a full story below where the smell is strongest — and the boulevard-tree canopy that makes these neighborhoods beautiful keeps the attics busy.
Then there’s winter. A carcass in an unheated wall or garage barely smells in January — and blooms the first warm week of March. If a smell “appeared out of nowhere” during a thaw, it’s usually been there for weeks. We work these houses the way they demand: confirm the location first, recover through access the house already has, and treat the cavity so the thaw doesn’t bring it back.
Not for wildlife on private property. Minneapolis Animal Care & Control runs a pickup program centered on dead pets — reported through 311 — and the city addresses carcasses in the public street. A raccoon under your deck, a squirrel in your wall, or a deer in your yard is the property owner’s to deal with, and Hennepin County’s disposal guidance tells residents to arrange proper disposal rather than guess. That arranging part is us: 612-662-5070.
Usually — and honestly when not. Most in-structure carcasses are reachable through access the house already has: attic edges, soffits, chases, sill gaps, crawl hatches. The odor gradient gives the spot away; we recover through the nearest real opening and treat the cavity. When an animal truly lies sealed behind finished plaster, you get the exact location and a straight explanation of what recovery would take — one small, informed decision instead of a hunt.
Typical calls: squirrels, raccoons, rats and mice, and birds — plus opossums, rabbits, and deer on private ground. Not sure what died? That’s normal; most in-wall calls start as a smell with no animal in sight. Describe what you’ve noticed and we’ll sort it out on the call.
By the situation. An open-yard removal is a different job from a recovery two floors up, so we ask where the animal is, how long it’s been there, and what access looks like — and you get a clear price up front, before any work starts.
The whole city — from the Northside and Camden down through Phillips, Seward, and Kingfield to Fulton and Armatage — plus the immediate surrounding metro. If the address is in or around Minneapolis, call and we’ll confirm on the spot.
Every day a carcass sits, the odor soaks deeper into wood and plaster. One call and it’s located, gone, and treated.
Call 612-662-5070