NY Pet's Can't Have Humans Buried With Them

Bad news for pets and their beloved owners: New York's Division of Cemeteries
has instructed animal cemeteries to stop burying the ashes of pet owners
alongside deceased Lassies and Patches. And as you can imagine, owners who have
been affected are none too pleased about it: "Suddenly I'm not at peace anymore.
You want to be with the people you are closest with, your true loved ones. The
only loved ones I have in my life right now are my pets, which I consider my
children." Bronx resident Rhona Levy told NBC.

Levy had prearranged to have her ashes interred there along with five pets, four
of whom are already buried at the Hartsdale Pet Cemetery in Westchester—her dog
Snow, cats Putchke, Pumpkin, Twinkie and Shaina (who is still alive). The pet
cemetery has long allowed people to be buried with their pets, as long as their
pets were buried their first, and they were cremated. Hartsdale has an estimated
700 humans interred with about 75,000 animals; they add approximately 10-12 new
people each year.

Cemetery director Edward Martin told the Post that its lawyers have always
maintained that the human ashes "are no longer human" and therefore could be
placed anywhere. But the state is cracking down after an AP article about the
practice came out earlier this year. According to state law, any cemetery
providing burial space for humans must be operated as a not-for-profit
corporation, which they say Hartsdale isn't. Martin told NBC that it was
ridiculous that they can't accomodate owners now: "As of now, we've suspended
the human part of it, but it's our position that they don't have the authority
to do this."

And in the meantime, families will have to deal with the fallout. Law professor
Taylor York said the state order has prevented her uncle, Thomas Ryan, from
being buried with his wife, Bunny, and their two dogs BJ I and BJ II (though
there is still space for the still living BJ III). "My uncle wants to be buried
beside his wife and what he considered to be his children and I'm not letting
anyone stand in the way. His love for those dogs was just as real and just as
strong as any parent's for any child," she said. See Chick's GOING TO THE DOGS.