Council considers dog park above, pet cemetery below two years after idea was buried

Tuesday, 2 July 2019

Marlborough's first dedicated dog park could break new ground for pooches above earth … as well as below.

The rugby pitch-sized dog park, in Renwick, is being eyed up for a pet cemetery, along with the Wither Hills Farm Park and the Taylor River.

It came after pet owner Carol Taylor submitted to the Marlborough District Council's long-term plan last year, asking for a pet cemetery in Blenheim, so that owners could have a place to mourn their 'fur babies'.

Taylor, who owned two bijon frise dogs, Alfie and Sophie, said the idea to start a pet cemetery began after the death of her pooch Buster in December 2017.

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'It devastated me. It affected me really badly,' she said.

'I started to think about if it's affected me this badly, then how do other people deal with it? There's no place for you to mourn here.

'People bury their pets in their garden, and when they move away, their pets are still in the ground. I think if you had a central place where everyone could go, it would give them somewhere to go and mourn.'

Taylor said she hadn't had children, so her pets became her 'fur babies'.

She asked the council to establish a pet cemetery where residents could bury the ashes of their pets, which was accessible to disabled pet owners.

Her idea was picked up by the council's animal sub-committee, despite the council earlier dubbing it 'not appropriate' to have pets buried at human cemeteries, after the idea was pitched by sub-committee chairman and councillor Jamie Arbuckle.

A report presented at an animal control sub-committee meeting in May said the council's reserves team could not accommodate a 'pet remembrance park' in any of the eight council-owned cemeteries.

It was also 'unlikely' a pet cemetery could be set up on other areas of reserve land, due to the Reserves Act, the report said.

But council reserves and amenities officer Grahame Smail said at the meeting the council could look at other areas, such as the Wither Hills Farm Park, which it leased from private owners, or the Taylor Dam.

Smail said the council had not approached the Wither Hills Farm Park lease holders, and an agreement would be needed to progress the idea.

SPCA Marlborough manager Donna Sologar, who owned one dog and five cats, said she didn't mind if a pet cemetery was installed at the new dog park in Renwick.

'I think something like that [a pet cemetery] could be quite nice, even if it was just a memorial place. It doesn't have to be a cemetery where you bury your pets,' she said.

The council agreed to investigate possible pet remembrance sites in town, and also research what pet cemeteries were like in other regions.

Council staff would report back at the next sub-committee meeting, on July 22.

Arbuckle, who headed the animal control sub-committee, said the council expected to make an announcement on the future of a pet cemetery in the next couple of months, but he was unsure when.

Still to be worked out were the cost of burial plots at the pet cemetery, how structures at the site would be funded and maintained, and how the new cemetery would look, with regards to landscaping and seating.

It was also decided at the meeting that bigger 'no dog' signs were needed at Omaka Cemetery, as people were using it as a walk through.

Signs would also be installed at mountain biking tracks, due to an increase in the number of bikers bringing dogs on the trails.