ScaryDuck, who keeps a log of people looking angry in local newspapers, alerted me to this article: Faversham mum told to put dead fox in her wheelie bin, which has answered a little question of mine.
Where, in a city, do you dispose of dead animals that arrive in your garden?
Back when I were a country lad, it was simple; dead birds got put in a hole (if very young witnesses were about) or left somewhere for the local feral cats to get rid of. Larger corpses were usually dragged off by animals quickly, or a nice friendly farmer could get rid of really big things. Simples.
Here, if (for example) a dog kills a small bird and drags it into the house, you can safely hide it in the wheelie bin. But we have feral foxes here, and our dog trainer1 told me a while back that one of her clients’ pack of dogs had eviscerated a fox that had wandered into the house. How do you get rid of that without the bloody bin police noticing it?
The above article answers: you don’t worry about the bin police, and just throw it in the bin as per normal. Which is nice to know.
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1 – yes, it’s gotten to the point where we have a dog trainer. Very odd.
Our rule –
Very small – bird or mouse-sized. Cat toy.
Small-medium – rabbit, rat, hedgehog. Threw on dungheap to compost
The rest. Buried in a hole. If beloved pet in a specially designated pet cemetery area.
Unfortunately, digging holes in a small London garden might not be the best idea…