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[ToxicFrog]

My fortress was recently invaded by a bunch of monkeys, who were immediately dispatched by the small army of semi-feral cats I keep around for moments like this. I quickly put together a butcher's workshop and designated a few dwarves with butchery and hunting skills, and they seemed to get some usable meat off the bodies - I saw "return corpse" show up in the jobs list and my meat supplies went up a bit.
However, the corpses are still there, periodically flooding the fortress with purple gas. I can't seem to figure out how to get rid of them, or where to look in the manual. Ideally I'd like to harvest them for bones and the like, but I'd settle for just tossing the damn things in the river.

[GauHelldragon]

You need to set up a refuse pile outside your fortress. All enemy corpses, body parts, chunks, bones and shells go into refuse piles, and all friendly corpses body parts chunks and bones go into the graveyard.

[ToxicFrog]

Aha! That did the trick, thank you.
Now I have two more questions, though -
- what's the difference between a graveyard and a refuse pile?
- how do I get my butcher to butcher horses? They're marked as "Ready for Slaughter" on the z-screen, but the butcher's workshop never gets manned (although I have two dwarves with the requisite profession) and nothing happens.
Knowing the latter is kind of important, because without it I doubt they'll make it through the winter.

[Arcanum]

Actually, it's somewhat useful to put a refuse pile in your fortress and seal it off with doors.  It improves the efficiency of waste disposal and the crafts that depend on the waste a fair amount.

[GauHelldragon]

The difference between graveyard and refuse is that enemies and wild animals go into a refuse pile, and your dwarves and their pets go into graveyards.

As to the butcher shop, it might be that your dwarves are just finding "better"
things to do than slaughter horses. If all else fails, disable every profession for those 2 dwarves besides butchery. If they still refuse to do the job, then there must be some other problem.

There should be a "butcher animal" task in your butcher shop as well.

[ August 21, 2006: Message edited by: GauHelldragon ]

[ToxicFrog]

I actually converted a small antechamber into a sealed refuse pile, since it's not being used for its original purpose (caravan reception) at the moment.
At some point I'll put a dedicated one near the workshops, but at the moment I'm more worried about working out how to get them to eat the horses, because the alternative is berserker dwarves before spring, the walls painted with blood, etc.

-edit-

As you suggested, I turned off everything but butchery.
He still hasn't killed any of the horses. Instead he went out, beat a cougar to death with his bare hands, and dragged it back to the butcher's shop. I was not expecting that.
Starvation is staved off for another day, anyways.

-edit-

Ok, not working out so well.
After butchering and storing the cougar, he went out and slaughtered one of the horses. However, having done that, he just dragged it into the refuse pile. Any attempt to create a new "butcher animal" job at the butcher's workshop is immediately canceled with the message "requires unrotten nearby corpse"

[ August 21, 2006: Message edited by: ToxicFrog ]

[ August 21, 2006: Message edited by: ToxicFrog ]

[ToxicFrog]

Ok, I think I've got the hang of this now.
The refuse pile goes /right next/ to the butcher's workshop, but seperated by a door so that the clouds of noxious gas don't annoy the butcher.