Category Archives: animal

Major Media Outlets Take Notice of Green Pet-Burial Society

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This has been an excellent year for press coverage of our work. This past May we were featured on NPR. Most recently, The Atlantic Magazine discussed our promotion of whole-family cemeteries (the article was also shared on MSN.com). Additionally, Natural Transitions Magazine highlighted the growing shift toward green burials for pets. More press coverage will be coming soon – we’ll keep you posted!

The Atlantic on Whole-Family Cemeteries

The Atlantic Magazine’s article, The Movement to Bury Pets Alongside People, discussed the psychosocial drive to keep families ‘together forever’ (our new tagline). Journalist Sonya Vatomsky had wanted to publish an article about our work for some time and was finally given the greenlight to do so. She accurately represents the intense desire to keep families together in whole-family cemeteries, despite legal concerns. Here’s an excerpt: Continue reading →

New Zealand Considers Whole-Family Cemeteries

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Michael Coghlan, Rural Wonderland (detail). 2011. flickr url: http://tinyurl.com/neq2j67.

Michael Coghlan, Rural Wonderland (detail). 2011. flickr url: http://tinyurl.com/neq2j67.

New Zealand is modifying its cemetery law.
Will it honor the wishes of those wanting to bury
their animals’ remains in their family’s cemetery plot?

by Rachael Ford  1709 words

In late 2013, Rachael Ford informed the Green Pet-Burial Society about New Zealand’s process of updating its cemetery law. A registered nurse, Rachael is the founder of With Our Loved Ones (WOLO), dedicated to establishing whole-family cemeteries in NZ. We support WOLO and sent a detailed letter to the NZ government in support of conservation whole-family cemeteries. We invited Rachael to prepare a guest blog about pet burial practices in New Zealand and her founding of WOLO. Here she provides a background on NZ cemetery law, Māori tradition, and a poetic recollection of grief for her dog Beulah.


NZcoat-of-armsNew Zealand, a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, is in the process of updating its Burial and Cremation Act of 1964. The Law Commission invited submissions from citizens, stakeholders and experts on how to improve the current law (the Green Pet-Burial Society was among the respondents). So in November 2013 I formed With Our Loved Ones (WOLO), an ad hoc group of New Zealanders and supporters dedicated to the formation of whole-family cemeteries in NZ. Continue reading →

Memories and Holidays

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Still frame from The Snowman and The Snowdog. 2012.

Still frame from The Snowman and The Snowdog. 2012. Hilary Audus, director.

People commonly say that “the holidays are all about family” – the families into which we were born or adopted, or the ones we create for ourselves. All of our relations – of different ages, cultures and species – are special to us in their own way.

Yet upon experiencing a recent death of a family member, close friend or teacher, or when remembering days gone by – the reassuring glances, kidding around or a gentle touch – we wonder: How might our reminiscences and grief coincide with the abundance of holiday cheer? Continue reading →

New York Anticipation

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diasteme_4764New legislation in New York State would make it possible for people to have their pet’s cremated remains (a.k.a. cremains) interred with them in certain NY cemeteries.

Originally introduced on March 21, 2013 by Republican Mike Ranzenhofer and cosponsored by Democrat Tony Avella, Bill S4322 already passed the Senate this past March in a landslide vote of 60-0 (with one abstention). It now awaits deliberation by the NYS Assembly (follow its progress here). The bill – which only pertains to cemeteries governed by the NYS Cemetery Board – permits those cemeteries to offer this option. Continue reading →

Virginia General Assembly to Consider Bill allowing Pets to be Buried beside Humans

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Update: On April 3, 2014, the Virginia Governor signed HB 588 into law.

The Virginia State Capitol - Thomas Jefferson's "Temple to Democracy"

The Virginia State Capitol – Thomas Jefferson’s “Temple to Democracy”

A bill (HB 588) was introduced in the Virginia General Assembly that would amend the State Cemetery Code to allow human cemeteries to designate a special section for the burial of human remains with their companion animals in adjacent graves. It was introduced by republican Delegate Israel O’Quinn with Delegate A. Benton Chafin, Jr. as Chief Co-Patron.

The issue was brought to Delegate O’Quinn’s attention by Kelly Farris, co-owner of Farris Funeral Services, who has been receiving increasing requests from folk who want to keep their family intact in death as they were in life. Continue reading →

One Year Sleeps, Another Awakes

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Gerrit Dou (1613–1675), Sleeping Dog (detail), 1650. Oil on panel, 6 ½ x 8 ½ inches. The Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Collection. Image courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Gerrit Dou (1613–1675), Sleeping Dog (detail), 1650. Oil on panel, 6 ½ x 8 ½ inches. The Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Collection. Image courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

The end of a year can be challenging, especially when we consider those who have recently passed, or those who passed years ago. Bereavement sneaks in, but only if we shut it out. As we close 2013 and look ahead to 2014, we’d like to share this poem by Denise Levertov.

Talking to Grief by Denise Levertov

Ah, Grief, I should not treat you
like a homeless dog
who comes to the back door
for a crust, for a meatless bone.
I should trust you. Continue reading →

Revisiting “My Life as a Turkey”

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“I’m a mother, it seems, and these are my children”

This night before Thanksgiving, I saw a stunning and quite surprising film on PBS – part of its Nature series. Entitled My Life as a Turkey, it chronicles the hatching, growing, learning, exploring and socialization of two groups of sibling wild turkeys and their adopted man-mom, naturalist Joe Hutto (played by Jeff Palmer). Remarkably,
Joe was “born into a hardcore turkey hunting family and culture.” Fascinating
and utterly moving, this film illustrates a somewhat enviable experience of living with young turkeys (‘poults’):

These animals were telling me how to live my life; also, we [humans] do not have a privileged access to reality.

Joe Hotto and brotherStories of human-turkey relationships only provide greater credence to the families any of us may form with other creatures – dogs, cats, rabbits, rats – all of whom deserve our affection and rescue from otherwise terrible ends by human hands.

The scene that prompted this post: two of the birds had died, and we see Joe digging their graves. Continue reading →

Pop Culture: ‘Bacon Coffin’ & ‘Dead Dogs’

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by Eric Greene

Marketing bacon and hot dogs with coffins? Sometimes we’re tempted to say that certain things just don’t warrant comment.  However, students of popular culture, animal studies and/or death studies may find this post particularly useful when illustrating cultural values and ideas about animals, food, death and humor.

Below are two examples of businesses mixing the accoutrements of human funerals with meat; by so doing, they focus our attention on the particular products they sell – bacon and hot dogs – and the bodies they come from. The unexamined words, images and materials that we use and encounter shape our cultural values, experiences and understanding of the world, and can sometimes create great distance among people, as well as between humans and other species.

“Bacon Coffin”

Bacon Coffin © 2012 J&D FoodsJust before April 1 (a.k.a., April Fool’s Day), a news item about a new bacon-themed coffin received a fair amount of media attention with many respondents inquiring if it was “real” or a hoax.  It was created and marketed by Seattle-based J&D Foods (although more accurately, the coffin markets them). They explain that it was created for “the bacon fan who loves bacon to death.” (see video below) Continue reading →

Two more Whole-Family Cemeteries in UK

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A wonderful mix of native woodland meadow flowers at Respects GB Scrooby / Bawtry Memorial Park

Brits love their pets! We just learned of Respect GB (Respect Great Britain – Respect Green Burials) and their two green burial grounds. According to their website: Continue reading →

Two New Green Cemeteries!

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summer wishes [Explored!]

The Green Pet-Burial Society is happy to announce two new green cemeteries:

  • Prairie Creek Conservation Cemetery in Gainesville, FL
  • Greenhaven Preserve in Eastover, SC.

Both are listed on our Providers webpage. Greenhaven Preserve includes both, a family cemetery and a pet cemetery.  Continue reading →

Call for Papers – Animal Death symposium

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Anna MerrittAnimal Death. June 13, 2012, University of Sydney Camperdown Campus. This symposium brings together cross-disciplinary voices on the topic of Animal Death. It seeks papers that explore how animal and human death are conceptualized, diverge, differ and also connect in profound ways. Papers could explore issues of sacrifice, “necessary” expendability, utility, species extinction, human survival, climate change and conservation. They are particularly interested in human and animal relationships around the nature of death. These include (but not limited to) issues of grief (for the dead companion animal), euthanasia, rituals of slaughter, vivisection, cultures of denial, the issue of who is and isn’t attributed a soul, and post-death belief systems. Please send 200 word abstracts to Dr Jay Johnston by January 16, 2012. Panels of up to three speakers are welcome. Continue reading →