[Nhcoll-l] Cleaning a roadkill freezer

[Matthew Becker]

Hi everyone,

We have a freezer where we store dead on recovery animals before sending 
them to our taxidermist to be mounted for exhibition and storage. We are 
in the process of the cleaning out this freezer as some of the dead 
animals at the bottom of the freezer are dated back to the 1990s! 
Getting rid of the old specimens isn't so much of a problem...the real 
problem is that at some point in the past the museum lost power and the 
roadkill freezer thawed leaving a horrible dead smell inside (beyond the 
regular dead smell from the animals).

My question: Does anyone have recommendations for cleaning a roadkill 
freezer? My inclination is just to go at it with bleach, but if anyone 
has any better/less toxic suggestions I would very much appreciate it!

Thank you.

Matthew Becker
Curator of Collections
Museum of Natural History + Planetarium
Roger Williams Park
1000 Elmwood Ave., Providence, RI 02907
401-680-7221