Can You Be Buried With Your Pet?How whole-family cemeteries make it possible
Despite the fact that many Americans consider their pets to be valued members of their family, it is not a common practice for humans and pets to be buried together. […]
Despite the fact that many Americans consider their pets to be valued members of their family, it is not a common practice for humans and pets to be buried together. Because cemeteries in the U.S. are generally regulated by laws which vary from state to state, those seeking to share their final resting place with a beloved animal might find it difficult to do so.
Buried Together: A Historic Practice
The practice of burying animals alongside humans stretches back thousands of years, with some archeological evidence that certain cultures valued their animal companions as much as we do today.
In Ancient Egypt, for example, pets like cats, dogs, birds and other creatures were sometimes mummified and buried with their humans, reflecting both affection and a belief that these animals would accompany them into the afterlife. Famously, Prince Thutmose shared his tomb with his beloved cat, which was one of the first pet cat mummies to be discovered. (In many other circumstances, the animals were “victual mummies,” intended to be a posthumous food source for their humans.)
In Bonn-Oberkassel, Germany, a dog was buried with two humans almost 14,000 years ago, serving as one of the earliest known archeological records of canine domestication. Between 5,000 and 8,000 years ago, dogs were buried alongside their humans in a cemetery at Lake Baikal in Siberia.
Robert Losey of the University of Alberta, who unearthed the remains, found evidence that the dogs were being treated just like people when they died.
“They were being carefully placed in a grave,” he told Archeology Magazine, “some of them wearing decorative collars or next to other items like spoons, with the idea being potentially that they had souls and an afterlife.”
The Whole-Family Cemetery Movement
Most states either have laws specifically prohibiting pets and humans to be buried together, or are silent on the issue, but a growing number of states are adopting laws allowing some form of combined burial. However, this is only the first step towards making the process more feasible.
According to the Funeral.com, “what matters is a three-part reality: state law sets the outer boundaries, cemetery rules decide what happens on their property, and the practical details depend on whether you mean a full-body burial, placing pet cremains in a casket or grave or combining memorial items at home.”
The Green Pet-Burial Society is on a mission to streamline the process for people who want to share their final resting place with an animal companion. According to their list of whole-family cemeteries, only 11 cemeteries in 9 states allow full-body burials of animal and human remains together. Other whole-family cemeteries might allow human and pet remains to be interred together but require cremation, and a few others are considered inclusive by offering a separate pet section.
Your Options
Funeral’s website offers a helpful guide that walks the reader through what’s commonly allowed, what is often prohibited, and the exact questions to ask a cemetery if you want to be buried with your pet.
However, keep in mind that regardless of the current state laws, funeral directors can exercise discretion when it comes to placing personal objects – such as the cremated remains of a much-loved pet – in people’s coffins.“They will tell you ‘not a day goes by when I don’t put an urn into the casket of a human being secretly for a family’” Coleen Ellis, co-chair of the Pet Loss Professionals Alliance (PLPA), told the Philadelphia Inquirer back in 2013. “So, while it’s been going on for a very long time, the trend is becoming more recognized where people are getting permission to do it.”
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