Sources

Where this comes from

Every statement on this site about a Missouri agency, a city or county, or a state or federal rule was read on the source's own page or in the rule text, and dated. This list is generated at build time from the sources recorded for the guide, service, location and article pages.

The rules we work to

• Official sources only. Statutes, regulations, city and county pages, municipal codes, and the contractors a government names as its service. Never a directory, a competitor or a search-engine summary. At least one summary found during the research said the opposite of the real page.
• Scope is preserved. A rule about live nuisance animals is not written up as a rule about dead ones, a road service is not written up as a yard service, and a county's policy is not attributed to the cities inside it.
• Absence is reported as absence. Where we searched and found nothing, such as a statewide removal deadline or a license specific to dead-animal work, the page says we found nothing, not that none exists.
• Nothing is called free unless the source says so. Where an agency publishes no fee, this site says no fee is published.
• Unverifiable means omitted. A claim that could not be confirmed on the day is left out.

Things we deliberately do not say

Each of these came up during the research and was left out or bounded, because the evidence did not support the version that circulates:

• That no license is needed to remove dead animals in Missouri. We found no license specific to the work, which is a different statement, and city or county business licensing was not part of the research.
• That the Missouri Department of Conservation licenses or endorses anyone for dead-animal removal. Its lookup lists nuisance wildlife control operators that asked to be listed, for live damage-causing wildlife, and a separate MDC authorization lets those operators report once a year instead of daily. MDC does not describe either as a license.
• That Missouri law requires a dead animal to be removed within 24 hours. The 24-hour rule that circulates, RSMo 269.020, covers people who own or care for livestock and other domestic animals.
• Burial depths and distances. The figures in RSMo 269.020 are written for livestock owners, not for a wild animal in a yard.
• That the CWD Management Zone still restricts what you can do with a deer. MDC removed the zone for the 2026-2027 season. Nor do we say the disease is no concern.
• That anyone may keep the antlers, skull, feathers or pelt of an animal found dead. Missouri law treats wildlife as state property dead or alive, so the site says to ask a conservation agent first.
• That raccoons are a main rabies carrier in Missouri. DHSS and MDC name bats and skunks.
• That bird flu is active in Missouri right now, or that it has gone. MDC's October 31, 2025 release reported confirmed cases, and its bird-flu page keeps a live map of detections since October 2025; the site sends readers there for the current picture.
• That a city pickup is free unless its own text says so. Kansas City's code says there is no charge for the occasional removal of a small animal; Manchester's and Raytown's pages do not mention a fee either way, so the site says that.
• Any number of days for a smell to clear. Where the site discusses how long a smell lasts, it is labeled as a field pattern, not a laboratory figure.

Every source used, and where

63 sources. All were read on 6 October 2026 unless stated otherwise.

Corrections

Agencies revise pages, ordinances get amended, and service catalogs change with budgets. If something here no longer matches what an agency publishes, or if you work for one of them and we have described your service wrongly, tell us through the contact form. Corrections get made and the date on the page gets updated.

Nothing on this site is legal advice. Where a rule carries money or a legal obligation, confirm it with the agency directly.