Virginia, private property
Dead Skunk Removal
VDH lists skunks among the wild animals most often diagnosed with rabies. VDH's rabies guidelines call raccoons, skunks and foxes the animals most often diagnosed in the state, and its March 2026 release lists skunks among the wild animals to avoid.
Before you pay anyone. If a dog, a cat or a person got close to the skunk, call your local health department first. VDH's guidance for a bite is to wash the wound, try to identify or confine the animal without picking it up, call animal control or law enforcement and notify a doctor. For a skunk nobody touched, look up your city or county's published position before paying anyone.
What this covers
- A skunk lying on a lawn, along a fence or near a woodpile
- A skunk found dead on a driveway, a porch step or a patio
- A skunk in an accessible garage corner or beneath an open deck edge
- A skunk that a pet brought into the yard
Where the limit is
A live skunk, a sick skunk or one trapped under a building: that is wildlife control, with trapping and relocation rules this site does not cover. Odour treatment inside finished walls or ceilings. A skunk on a public street, which the locality or VDOT handles.
Arlington County's Animal Control lists a dead skunk among the species it picks up, with no location limit stated on the county page, and AWLA words it as a rabies vector species. Chesapeake's Public Works collects dead animals in the right-of-way and says it will not enter private property.
No timing is promised here. Coverage and availability for your address come up on the call.
How a call goes
- Say where the skunk is and whether you can see it without going closer.
- Say whether a pet was in the yard when it was found.
- Give your city or county so the published local position can be checked.
- If an operator covers your ZIP, ask what they do with the carcass and where it is taken.
Questions about this animal
Is a dead skunk dangerous to my dog?
VDH treats the skunk as a high-risk species for rabies and tells people not to handle dead animals. If a pet had contact, ask a vet or animal control, and we leave the medical and veterinary side to them.
Who picks up a dead skunk in Arlington?
Arlington County's Environmental Health page says to call Animal Control at 703-931-9241 for a dead raccoon, fox, bat, groundhog or skunk. AWLA adds that deceased animals are generally low-priority calls.
Can I bury a skunk in my yard?
Chesapeake's Public Works page says animals should not be buried on private property because of possible groundwater contamination. We found no Virginia statute that makes burying a wild animal compulsory, and the burial statutes we found bind an animal's owner, which a homeowner is not for a wild skunk.
Not sure this is the right page? Who removes a dead animal in Virginia works through the public and private split, and the locations page sets out what the larger counties and cities publish.