[Nhcoll-l] Cleaning a roadkill freezer

[Simon Moore]

Hi Matthew,

I have had some first-hand experience of this as I was the only one with a strong enough stomach!

I cleaned the freezer interior with a hose first, followed by strong disinfectant but not bleach.  Once the freezer was dry and could be safely switched on, then the putrefaction odour was minimal.  
The bodies were buried in a shallow mass grave and then had building materials dumped on them to prevent marauding.  Once the building work had been done, then there were a few passable skeletons amongst the remains, some had semi-mummified!

With all good wishes, Simon.

Simon Moore MIScT, RSci, FLS, ACR
Conservator of Natural Sciences and Cutlery Historian, 



www.natural-history-conservation.com 




> On 21 Nov 2018, at 15:26, William Shepherd <w.shepherd at swiftcurrent.ca> wrote:
> 
> Hello Matthew,
> 
> 	I don't have much experience in getting rid of corpse smell from freezers but smells tend to get into everything. Bleach would probably help but when all is said and done you'll probably still smell it to some extent. If there are any fluids or left overs frozen to the freezer, cleaning that out will help too. My best recommendation for the smell would be to clean it well with soap, possibly give it a wipe down with bleach, and then put bowls or pans of baking soda in there for a while. The amount of baking soda will depend on the size of the freezer but you can't have too much. The flow through boxes may work too but you have limited surface area being exposed to the smell. The longer you leave the baking soda in there the better, but this may depend on how quickly you need to get the freezer back into use. In the conservation world baking soda is often used to remove or reduce smell from items with relative success.
> 
> William Shepherd
> Collections Officer
> Swift Current Museum
> 44 Robert Street West
> Swift Current, Saskatchewan
> S9H 4M9
> Phone: 306-778-4815
> Fax: 306-778-4818
> 
> Archives: http://sain.scaa.sk.ca/collections/swift-current-museum
> Library: https://www.librarything.com/profile/SwiftCurrentMuseum 
> Website: http://www.swiftcurrent.ca
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> On Behalf Of Matthew Becker
> Sent: November 21, 2018 8:58 AM
> To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
> Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Cleaning a roadkill freezer
> 
> 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
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