The figure was revealed in the Alice Springs regional waste management facility report for October.
The dead pet you asked the vet to dispose of will end up buried in landfill, in most places across the country, and Alice Springs is no different.
“It’s a combination of horses, dogs, cats, pigs, any animal that dies,” said Alice Springs council technical services director Greg Buxton. “Road kill, kangaroos and that, the rangers pick them up, and you’ve got to dispose of them somewhere hygienic. So we put them at the back of landfill.”
The facility is on track to exceed last year’s total, with 3.7 tonnes deposited in the first quarter of this financial year.
Mr Buxton said most regional councils across the country dispose of dead animals in landfill.
“In the bigger cities they have an incinerator type setting where they cremate them, whereas we don’t have an incinerator here,” he said.