|
|||||||||||||
Printer-Friendly
Email this Story
Post a Comment (0)
Loudoun provides plenty of work for area ‘road-kill’ removers
The two men, wearing hard hats and neon yellow safety vests, look down at the rotting carcass of a dead deer. Cars whiz by at 60 to 70 miles an hour -- the drivers barely noticing the scene that unfolds on the shoulder of eastbound Route 7, between Purcellville and Leesburg.
The men turn to their pickup truck and grab the simple tools of their trade: latex gloves and a heavy-duty trash bag.
The summer air is filled with the stench of death. Robert Flores picks up what’s left of the deer's back legs, and his partner, Franklin Perez, handles what’s left of the front legs. They place the remains in the trash bag, leaving behind a pile of fur and maggots on the hot black asphalt.
“Probably been here more than two days,” says Flores, of Ashburn-based Allied Cleaning Services Corp. Sometimes, he says, the deer they find are bloated. This one looks deflated -- the decomposing lump of flesh only slightly resembling the graceful mammal it once was.
The trash bag gets thrown in the back of the pickup. Eventually the bags will end up in Loudoun’s landfill. Flores and Perez move on to the next dead animal, which happens to be another deer about 100 feet away on the same stretch of road.
Road kill is the unfortunate collision of civilization and nature that spills carnage on our suburban and country roads. It’s so commonplace, people barely notice the mangled remains they pass on their way to work or the supermarket.
Few would willingly sign up to discard dead animals, but it's a vital job in Northern Virginia, with its ever-growing population of deer and cars.
The workers make $15 to $20 an hour for Allied Cleaning, which has been contracted by the state to clean up dead animals on Northern Virginia's roads.
Allied Cleaning owner Liaqat “Ali” Kahn says the vast majority of animals they pick up are deer. The state pays the company $45 per carcass.
“The most deer we pick up are in Loudoun and Fairfax counties,” says Kahn.
Kahn says his contract with the Virginia Department of Transportation budgets for removal of about 2,500 dead animals a year on Loudoun’s roads – 7,800 total in the entire district, which includes the counties of Prince William, Fairfax, Arlington and Frederick, as well as areas on I-66 and I-495.
Kahn says the company could remove much more, but VDOT doesn’t have money in the budget for it.
Removing dead animals from public roads can take a few days. VDOT gets a call from one of its workers or a citizen with the location and description of the animal. If it's in the middle of the road, VDOT sends an emergency crew out immediately.
If it’s on the side of the road, a report goes out to Kahn's company, which has 24 hours to remove the animal. By the time his men get to the animal, it’s usually been dead for a while.
One order Kahn received said, “You must get out of vehicle -- you can smell it before you see it.”
Kahn and his wife, Sajeda, are originally from Pakistan and have owned and operated Allied Cleaning since 1989. They have many types of cleaning contracts in the area -- not just dead animal removal. They run their business from a small office in their spacious Ashburn home.
If Kahn's employees see another dead animal on the road that hasn’t been reported to VDOT, they must call headquarters to get authorization before removing it. They don’t get paid unless VDOT knows about it, Kahn says.
Allied Cleaning will also remove dead animals from private property. The company has fished out deer and raccoons from swimming pools.
Rutting, or mating, season, which starts in late October and runs through December, is a busy time for Kahn's workers. The deer are not only more active but also bigger than usual.
“The males have big antlers – it always takes at least two men,” says Kahn. Many times, the male and female will be found together, stopped short in their mating ritual.
In the winter, Kahn says, when the deer stay fresh longer, it's not uncommon for the bodies to disappear before workers get can there to remove them. Sometimes, Kahn will go out with his men, if they are having trouble finding the remains.
“[One time] we saw the blood and no deer,” says Kahn. “Someone took it.”
Contact the reporter at akeisman@timespapers.com
You must be logged in to post a comment.