Dead Animal Removal in Ashtabula, OH

Why Ashtabula Has the Dead-Animal Calls It Does

Ashtabula is the largest city in Ashtabula County, which at roughly 702 square miles is the biggest county in Ohio by land area and home to about 97,000 people. The county is spread out rather than metro-shaped: the Lake Erie shoreline and Ashtabula Harbor to the north, the Grand River and Conneaut Creek valleys inland, Pymatuning Reservoir on the Pennsylvania line, and the Grand River Valley vineyards around Geneva-on-the-Lake. The county also carries more covered bridges than anywhere else in Ohio, including the Smolen-Gulf Bridge, the longest covered bridge in the United States.

Common species calls in greater Ashtabula: Most-called species across Ashtabula County: deer along the I-90 and OH-11 corridors and on vineyard and farm edges near Geneva, Harpersfield and Austinburg; raccoon in Ashtabula's and Conneaut's older lakefront housing; opossum and skunk in Jefferson and Andover; beaver and muskrat along the Grand River and Conneaut Creek, which is unusual for the network and specific to this county's waterways.

Pickup jurisdiction in Ashtabula: We found no clear dead-animal pickup policy for Ashtabula and Conneaut in the city pages (Public Works, Sanitation) and the county health department page we reviewed; responsibility can turn on whether the carcass lies on a city street, a township road, a state route or on private property. ODOT covers I-90, US-20, OH-11, OH-45 and OH-193. I-90 runs the full length of the county and accounts for much of its deer-vehicle activity. Outside those municipalities, township trustees handle township roads, so the responsible party varies road by road here more than in a compact metro. Private property is the owner's responsibility; the county's Disposal Opportunities and Animal Claims pages do not address dead animals.

Neighborhoods around Ashtabula: Conneaut, Geneva, Jefferson, Andover, Geneva-on-the-Lake, Austinburg, Harpersfield, Orwell.