'Not appropriate' pet cemetery idea dead and buried
Thursday, 30 November 2017
Let dead dogs lie … somewhere else.
A move to introduce pet cemeteries beside 'human' cemeteries has been shot down in Marlborough.
It means pet owners will have to keep digging up the garden for the time being.
Councillor Jamie Arbuckle brought up the idea of pet cemeteries this week as the Marlborough District Council discussed a master plan for the region's cemeteries.
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The council thought cemeteries, Fairhall Cemetery in particular, could be more 'park-like'.
Arbuckle, who buried his bordie collie in his orchard last year, suggested a place to bury animals.
'This could be a provision in the planning for all cemeteries,' he said.
'Pets could be buried for a donation, perhaps. A section for a pet cemetery would be a special place.'
The idea didn't exactly get tails wagging though.
Councillor Geoff Evans said it would not be appropriate for pets to be buried in Fairhall Cemetery, or any cemetery.
'I am quite adamant about that. Pets should not be buried anywhere near any cemetery with people in it,' he said.
Evans said pet cemeteries should be stand-alone, and cited an example at San Francisco where a commercial pet cemetery had run for more than 50 years.
As well as being a pet lover, Arbuckle said he had requests from constituents for a pet cemetery in Marlborough. He said cemetery planning was the time to raise it.
'It need not be at Fairhall,' Arbuckle said. 'But if we are going to plan then it could be in a current cemetery or a stand-alone cemetery, or at a dog park.'
He said people had few alternatives when pets died, and it was especially a problem for people who did the traditional burial in the back garden, and then had to move away.
'I buried my border collie last year,' Arbuckle said. 'We buried him in the orchard, and when we move, which will be sometime next year, well, he's left behind isn't he?'
'It may not be a burial thing, it could be cremation and a memorial wall or something.'
Marlborough woman Carol Taylor had three bijon frise dogs - Sophie, Elfie and Buster - and said she had asked Arbuckle about pet cemeteries.
'It's a shame we don't have a cemetery. You hear of people losing their pets and burying them in the garden, then they have to up their roots and leave their loved ones behind. Or they get them cremated and keep the ashes, but they don't really know what to do with them.
'This is a pet loving area. It would be nice to create somewhere we could all go and mourn our pets and say 'goodbye' in a dignified way.'
Taylor said she understood some people would not like the idea.
'Everybody has their own view. When you're running any project you won't please everybody. Whatever the council does, not everyone will like it,' she said.
'You'll get some people who are absolutely sick at the idea of pets and people buried in the same area, and I can understand that. But then there's people like myself.'
Taylor said she had never been able to have children and had to get her head around that. She said there was a lot of people who looked at their cat or dog or bird as their 'fur baby'.
'Maybe a farmer would donate a piece of land for pets. You'd have to have guidelines, as for anything.'
Meanwhile, kaumātua and iwi representative at the council Richard Hunter said iwi did not need to be consulted regarding any of the cemetery plans.
'Iwi have their own urupā and don't need to be consulted on that basis. It's a cultural perspective. When I look at Fairhall Cemetery I see it is people from outside iwi who are there,' Hunter said.
The council received the cemetery report without a pet cemetery provision.