Concept Goals
- To advance the concept (and practice) of whole-family cemeteries – which welcome the interment of pet remains in the family cemetery plot (which holds two or more graves – tiered or adjacent).
- To advance the notion of interspecies families with their full expression of joy and sorrow.
- To distinguish between a true earth burial and underground entombment.
Action Goals
- To create green burial options for the remains of beloved companion animals in both, pet and whole-family cemeteries.
- To provide information about the green burial of pet remains.
- To facilitate research on human practices related to animal death, interspecies families, and environmentally-sustainable disposition of pet remains.
Objectives
The following objectives are designed to meet these overriding goals, and comprise the basis for our separate projects.
To encourage families to become informed about local green burial options for their companion animals before their pet passes away.
To change state cemetery laws in order to allow pets to be buried in family cemetery plots. While pets can be buried in family plots in many states, this practice is currently prohibited in California, Georgia, New York, Oregon and Washington (we are investigating other states for a complete listing).
To provide pet cemetery owners and managers with information that will support their interest in and provision of green burial options.
4. Permanent Status for Pet Cemeteries
To advocate for pet cemeteries to acquire governmental status as protected sites in perpetuity – a prerequisite for green burial options.
To encourage pet families (i.e., ‘owners’) to set up a local (non-profit) burial society in order to work with existing pet cemeteries, purchase pet cemeteries, or establish new green pet cemeteries.
To support the establishment of new green pet-burial sites.
7. Pet Trusts
To ensure the ongoing care of your companion animal(s) in the event that you die before your pet or become disabled and can no longer care for your pet.
8. Research
To facilitate multidisciplinary research about pet cemeteries and the natural burial of pet remains. Such research would include investigations into how (if at all) the particular choice for the disposition of pet remains may be connected to perceptions about other animals and our relationships with them.
To support and announce systems that will facilitate interstate and international transport of a pet’s remains for an earth burial back home.
updated December 14, 2015
Green Pet-Burial Society 