How To Dispose of Dead Pets in New York City
Did you know that if you call New York City's 311 line because your pet is dead, they will tell you that you can "place the animal in a trash bag clearly marked 'dead dog' or 'dead cat' out with your garbage on your normal trash pickup day"? Good to know!
Is there something about Cat we need to know??? :(((
Oops sorry! Cat the cat is FINE and dandy.
God bless us all everyone. (Also, Matt, Moff & I thank you for Cat the lower case cat!!)
What happens if you leave bags labeled 'bitch wouldn't shut up' ?
The garbagemen get a good and much-needed laugh, I imagine?
Worth a try?
I've actually always wanted to do a performance piece in a hardware store wherein I am surreptitiously video-taped purchasing an axe, shovel, tarpaulin, rope, smock, caustic lime, surgical mask, and paying with a large wad of cash.
I really just want to see how the clerk would react.
Rather than the tarp, I'd suggest hacksaw, extra large trash bags and some cleaning supplies. Don't forget to ask the clerk what's best to get blood out of carpet.
A little more Michael Alig, a little less Patrick Bateman.
Ha! On October 29 I was sorely tempted to go to a supermarket and buy some apples and razor blades.
The dead-eyed high school-age cashiers at my local supermarket probably wouldn't even notice.
You'll end up with a bunch of crazed Axl Rose fans outside your door?
Or you can take it up to that weird pet cemetery in Westchester and watch all of the lonely New Yorkers without backyards visiting their pets' graves.
Just don't tell Fred Gwynne.
I'm picturing myself sitting on the patio furniture in Batavia staring at the depression in the soil just at the edge of the concrete while having a drink and spilling a few tears remembering Sophie playing around that same garden spot. This at the house I sold 5 years ago.
Is it evil or servicey to forward this link to "friends" on facebook who provide constant health updates of their sick pet?
It sure is.
Want to know what to do if your dog(s) die(s) in Istanbul? Carpetblog has already addressed this issue, too.
http://carpetblog.typepad.com/carpetblogger/2009/01/ask-carpetblogger-what-are-your-options-if-your-pet-dies-in-istanbul.html
How many pets are we talking about? Consider that Istanbul has ~11 million human beings (with pets of all kinds) living in that city, and yet Istanbul ranks only as the 5th most (human) populated city in the world. Istanbul is beat by Mumbai, Shanghai, Karachi, and Delhi (which combined have at least ~55 million pet owners). As for what happens to NYC trash bags (all contents included), please know that a great deal of it apparently ends up in Philadelphia! http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/02/nyregion/02garbage.html
Actual population of Istanbul is closer to 15-16 million due to unmeasured urban migration. There are actually very few pet owners because dogs are haram to some muslims and frowned upon by most others.
It's become very fashionable among the secular urban elite to have a golden retriever or german shepherd now and it is also increasingly common to see german shepherds and goldens running stray on the streets because people have no idea how to deal with dogs. This is sad.
Still, the proportion of Istanbullus who have any pet at all is miniscule, which is why the fact there is a mechanism (several, in fact) for disposal of their remains is somewhat shocking. How are dogs getting cremated when people are not? It's a question I choose not to think a lot about, having had two dogs dispatched thusly in the last 9 months.
What about Grandpa?
"bowel obstruction"
This service saves up-and-coming serial killers considerable time and expense.
By the way, what happens if you don't clearly mark the bag? $120 fine?
Thanks! I was planning on calling up and saying that an animal got into my apartment and then died, you have to come and get this thing outta here, but now I don't need to even go through the trouble.
About six years ago, I had to deal with this. It wasn't my pet – it was the landlady's. And she had died as well. (Yes, one of those New York stories – the landlady didn't like people checking up on her. So we didn't. Then the flies came….)
And I told 311 that there was no way in hell I was scooping up the remains of that dog into a garbage bag. Ultimately the landlady's daughter had a pet services company come and get the dog and cremate him.
It was all very traumatic.
I once saw a badly broken microwave that someone had thrown out, and it had 'Karen Silkwood' scrawled on the top of it in black Sharpie.
I had this problem! But it was in DC. And it was a deceased hedgehog (RIP Einstein). I called my mother in tears, and she said to put him in the garbage. Which I did. I did not clearly mark the bag. I did, however, cry hysterically when I was woken up by garbage-collecting/compacting sounds the next morning.
Somehow 'dead hedgehog' makes me sadder than 'dead cat.'
I had a raccoon break into my apartment in Brooklyn (or a possum, apparently there are huge possums in Brooklyn) and EAT MY TURTLES while I was in VT one weekend.
I thought I had been robbed by a crazy homeless person who ate my turtles (you know you live in New York when…) and then I saw the raccoon/possum paw prints in my bathtub and realized nothing had been stolen, just knocked around.
I could've thrown them away in a little ziploc bag neatly inscribed on the label, I suppose.
He was in your bathtub washing his dinner! He probably was in there all weekend washing his hands and picking his teeth on your couch.
I KNOW!!! A LITERAL 'ANIMAL HOUSE' IF YOU WILL!?!?
One of the bloodied empty turtle shells WAS on the couch too!
I sort of wish you would have run them through the dishwasher a few times on the Rinse Hold setting and shellacked them into nice memento mori change bowls.
garge – we should hang out.
I was very much thinking we should be in the same limo party for the Awl winter formal.
garge–reuse, how very green.