Road kill provides dead-end employment

Think you have an unpleasant job?

Be thankful. You could be the road kill cleaner-upper.

When the deer or the raccoon gets splattered on Interstate 55, when the carcass is left mangled and ripped inside-out on the hot pavement of a mid-summer day, Loy Shrum is one of the Missouri Department of Transportation workers who gets the telephone call to clean it up.

Road kill cleanup has to be one of the most unpleasant jobs in the realm of public service. But somebody has to do it.

Shrum works for MoDOT, has for 31 years. He now works as the supervisor of the Jackson shed, but he still does the dirty work when no one else is available.

Does it still get to him after all these years?

"You better believe it," he said. "I personally have picked up many. We've got one guy who can't handle it. Excuse me for saying this, but I've gagged many a time.

"We try not to go out after we've eaten. I've tried some Vick's under my nose and that helps. But we like for people to call us before they get too bad."

Road kill retrieval is one of many jobs performed by Shrum and others who clean up the road messes.

Shrum said MoDOT cleans up the larger animals such as deer, dogs and cats, a few raccoons and opossums. MoDOT doesn't worry so much about the squirrels. There's not much left to clean up after a squirrel has been run over again and again by cars traveling at high speeds.

Sometimes it takes a loader to scrape the remains off the pavement, he said.

Shrum's crew is called out every other day or so, depending on the time of year.

Shrum loads the carcasses in the back of a truck and hauls them off to a large graveyard behind the shed where they're buried. If the victim is a deer, he records various information for the benefit of the Missouri Department of Conservation.

Last year, 9,152 deer were reported killed by motorists in the state of Missouri, according to Lonnie Hansen, a resource scientist with the conservation department. Of those, 63 were reported in Cape Girardeau County.

Hansen said the actual number of deer killed on roads is probably much higher than the reported number, but it's still only a fraction of the more than 200,000 deer taken by Missouri hunters every year.

Motorists will see more dead deer along the side of the road in the next few weeks as the deer mating season begins and the animals become more active, Hansen said. Forty-two percent of all deer collision fatalities occur in October and November.

"The bottom line for motorists is don't lose control of the vehicle," Hansen said. "Keep from swerving. Some of the worst accidents happen when motorists try to avoid the deer and crash into trees or an oncoming vehicle. People need to be aware that deer are active and need to be on the lookout, but don't put yourself at further risk by trying to avoid an animal."

In Missouri, motorists may have a deer processed for food if they hit it. Hansen said motorists must first get permission from the local authorities before processing the deer. The local police department will fill out a death report and turn it in to the conservation department.

Ben Rhymer, an animal control and nuisance abatement officer in Cape Girardeau, said there are three officers who take care of road kill in the city limits of Cape Girardeau, including state highways. He said each one picks up about three or four dead animals per day and disposes of them at the transfer station in Cape Girardeau.

"We try to pick up everything, including squirrels," he said. "Right now there are lots and lots of dead squirrels. The weather is getting cooler and they're out getting nuts for the winter."

Rhymer, who also addresses calls on loose animals and zoning violations, said the only time the road-kill job bothers him is during the summer.

"The longer you do it, the more you get immune to it," he said.

bmiller@semissourian.com

243-6635