Tag Archives: Inspiration

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 →

A new kind of pet cemetery – Pet Memorial Acres

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Updated March 18, 2015: We are sorry to announce that this beautiful cemetery has since closed due to lack of business and interest within the surrounding area. The Green Pet-Burial Society will continue to encourage and support new conservation whole-family cemeteries in the future. Please visit our directories to find a suitable cemetery near you.

A beautiful new pet memorial park, Pet Memorial Acres, recently opened in central New York State. With its commitment to green burials within its borders – and in general – it represents a future direction for pet cemeteries in the U.S. and abroad. Since there are few options for green pet-burials in dedicated cemeteries, we wanted to recognize Pet Memorial Acres by inviting its founder, Darryl Simcoe, to write of his inspiration and aspirations for this new venture.

by Darryl Simcoe, Founder, Pet Memorial Acres

Pet Memorial Acres

Summer at Pet Memorial Acres

My interest in pet cemeteries evolved from my research into green burials. I came across the website for Greensprings Natural Cemetery Preserve located in Newfield, New York. A human cemetery, it is one of a very few cemeteries in New York State that provide the option of a green burial for all people. [Note: New York State cemetery law prohibits animals from being buried in human cemeteries.] Continue reading →

2012 Year in Review

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Reed and Red by Per Ola Wiberg ~ powi on flickr.com2012 has been an eventful year for our Green Pet-Burial Society. This work is continually buoyed by the simple question:

Why is this important?

It’s not only about burials – it’s so much more than that! It’s about our worldviews of Nature, animals and our own humanity, and it’s about embracing all that is simple and beautiful in life. We’ve learned of four new green cemeteries that allow a pet’s remains to be buried in the family plot – two in the U.S. and two in the U.K. –  and we’ve seen established pet cemeteries plan for new green burial sections. Here are some other highlights: 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 →