Laying a Pet to Rest: A Short History of Pet Cemeteries

Credit: shinepetphotos.com

The loss of a pet can be as tragic and heart-rending as the loss of a human family member. Pets can be our faithful companions, our children, or even our coworkers. Because their love is so fiercely unconditional and their lives are often so short, the grief that we have for our pets can be as uncomplicated and pure as the love that they bestowed upon us in life. Humanity has had a long history of keeping pets, and throughout the world, it seems that there has always been pet cemeteries to help us pay our respects to our animal companions.

Pets can be our faithful companions, our children, or even our coworkers.

As early as 4000 years ago, in ancient Egypt, the tradition of mummifying and interring animals was not uncommon. Pets like cats and dogs, or even monkeys and gazelles are documented to have been buried alongside their owners in the tombs of great kings and wealthy individuals. Although many pets were often killed when their owners died, so that they could enter the afterlife together, it was not uncommon to have pets interred with their owners after dying of natural causes at a later date. Aside from the Valley of the Kings, where pets were commonly interred with humans, the Saqqara Animal Cemetery is one of the most famous places in Egypt where animal cults would bury the animals they worshiped.

The popularity of pet cemeteries exploded during the late 19^th century with the founding of institutions like ‘Le cimetiere des chiens et Autres Animaux Domestiques’ (the ‘Cemetery of Dogs and Other Domestic Animals’), founded in 1899 in Paris, and its American counterpart, the Hartsdale Pet Cemetery, which was established in New York in 1896. Among the other 70,000 inhabitants of the cemetery, ‘Le Cimetiere des Chiens’ is famously known as the final resting place of the dog-actor Rin Tin Tin. Although it was founded out of necessity after a law was passed requiring that domestic pets could not be buried within 100 meters of human dwellings, the cemetery’s undeniable popularity among pet-owners is a testament to how deep our grief can be after the loss of a pet.

There is no wrong way to grieve for a pet.

The Hartsdale pet cemetery holds the impressive title as being the United States’ oldest pet cemetery. This cemetery was started by the sympathetic veterinarian, Dr. Samuel Johnson, who started allowing grieving family members to bury their pets in his apple orchard as an act of kindness. As of 2013, there have been upwards of 80,000 pets, and even 20 pet-owners, who have been buried on their grounds. Since it’s conception, their services have grown exponentially to include options for caskets, monuments, and even funerals and viewings on their grounds. And the Hartsdale pet cemetery is just one of the 600 operating pet cemeteries in the United States alone. As one of the top 10 pet cemeteries in the country and a member of the International Association of Pet Cemeteries and Crematories, Hartsdale represents only the beginning of this modern era of grieving and memorializing our feathered and furry family members.

Credit: mashable.com

The Hartsdale pet cemetery is just one of the 600 operating pet cemeteries in the United States alone.

There is no wrong way to grieve for a pet. For some pet-owners, simply keeping a memento may be enough. However, for the population of pet-owners who would like to memorialize their pets more extravagantly, it is important to realize that there is a place for you as well. In this day and age, pets are more than just companions. They are family, and their loss can be just as tragic as the loss of a child. Why not reserve a plot for them in your cemetery to match the place that you have reserved for them in your heart?

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• Ancient Egyptian Burial Customs: Tombs and Mummification
• We Euthanize Dying Animals, Don’t We?
• New Egyptian Tombs in Valley of the Kings?