Reading · Berks County
Dead Animal Removal in Reading, Pennsylvania
Something died where you can smell it or see it, and you want it gone. Call and the operator holding Berks County works out what it is, how to reach it, and what taking it away costs.
Who removes a dead animal from private property in Reading?
You do, or a private operator you hire. No public agency in Reading or Berks County publishes a service that collects carcasses from private ground.
That answer is worth stating carefully, because a lot of what is written about Reading online is stated without a source. Here is what was actually checked, and where each fact came from.
Checked 14 September 2026: the City of Reading Animal Control Board page, Residential Trash & Recycling, About Public Works and the services listing on readingpa.gov. None mentions dead animals, carcasses or roadkill.What gets collected
Deer on private land
The heavy one. An animal hit near a road frequently covers ground before it drops, so it lands behind a house rather than where it was struck. Past the tree line on a Berks township lot is a vehicle-access problem before it is anything else.
Outdoors and visible
Raccoon against a fence, opossum under a deck, groundhog in a bed you were about to weed. You can see it, which makes it the quickest kind of job to price over the phone.
Inside a building
Garage, barn, attic with a hatch, crawl space with a door, porch void where the lattice has gone. The question is only whether somebody can reach it without opening up the structure.
If it is on a road instead
Then it is probably not yours to pay for, and which agency depends on which road you are standing on. Two of those are worth knowing before you call anyone.
What if the animal is on a state highway?
PennDOT. Report it on 1-800-FIX-ROAD rather than going out to it.
Berks sits in PennDOT Engineering District 5, which also covers Carbon, Lehigh, Monroe, Northampton and Schuylkill counties and carries 3,344 road miles and 2,128 bridges. Do not walk a highway shoulder to reach an animal for any reason.
Source: PennDOT District 5, district office 610-871-4106.And a dead deer specifically?
In Pennsylvania deer are a game species, and the Game Commission runs a dispatch line around the clock on 1-833-PGC-WILD.
That is the number for deer in a public place or a question about which agency owns a given location. It is not the number for a deer lying on your own land.
Pennsylvania Game Commission centralized dispatch, 1-833-742-9453, staffed 24 hours.A county of two halves
Reading is dense and old, with raised porches, stone basements and alley garages. Fifteen minutes out it is farmland and long private lanes. The same dead raccoon is a different job in each, and almost all of the difference is how close a vehicle gets.
What this site will not tell you
A price before anyone has heard the details, a promise that somebody is free today, or anything about an operator's licensing or insurance. None of that is verified here, so none of it is published. What actually moves a price.
Plainly
What you are dealing with here
This is advertising and a booking line for Reading and Berks County. It is not a removal company. What you send goes to an independent operator who works the county; they ring you back, set their own price, and the agreement is with them.
Where this site states something about the city, the county, PennDOT or the Game Commission, the source sits under the claim so you can check it yourself. Where nothing is published, it says so rather than filling the gap with a guess.
How a job runs
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Describe it
Species if you know it, where on the property, and how near a vehicle can park.
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Take the callback
The operator prices it against your situation. Nothing is booked until you agree.
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It goes
Bagged and off the property. If it has been there a while, ask about the ground underneath while you have them on the phone.