Pet cemetery
A pet cemetery is a special case of a cemetery , especially for animals . It is usually not owned by a municipality and is only open to animals from their households. There are also mostly privately operated animal cemeteries.
Animal cemeteries have become established around the world. Some major cities have at least one such facility. The first modern animal cemeteries in Germany emerged around the middle of the 19th century . Most of the classic domestic animals such as dogs or cats are buried, but also circus animals and horses. The world's most famous pet cemetery is the Cimetière des chiens (" dog cemetery ") in Asnières-sur-Seine north of Paris .
Similar to the burial of dead people, animals are now buried in specially made coffins or in urns .
In addition to the animal cemeteries, the cremation (cremation) of pets in a specially built animal crematorium has also become popular in the western world . Rigid environmental regulations on the one hand and the desire of many animal owners to know the ashes - often buried in an urn - or to bury them in their own environment have encouraged the emergence of animal crematoria.
With separate cremation, the urns with human ashes and those of domestic animals can be buried together in a shared grave in currently two cemeteries in Germany.
Burial forms
Pets can be given an earth grave (also with a coffin and grave monument) at special animal cemeteries or under certain conditions (see legal provisions) on a property in private ownership / use. Cremation in a crematorium is also possible. The urn can then be buried in the ground or at sea, but it can also be kept at home. Some animal cemeteries also offer a columbarium to store the urn . Animal cemeteries and animal crematoriums often maintain hearses, coffin / urn graves, grave maintenance contracts, farewell rooms and sell funeral accessories and cemetery articles (coffins, animal urns, grave decorations, grave monuments, etc.).
Statutory Regulations
From a legal point of view , bodies of dead animals are things that, due to their nature, can pose a threat to human life and health. They must therefore be subjected to special treatments.
The legal basis is Regulation EC 1069/2009 and the Animal By-Product Disposal Act.
The ashes of cremated animals are harmless in terms of their hazard potential and do not require any additional treatment.
- Animal burials require official approval by the locally responsible veterinary offices.
- Animal burial is only permitted with the consent of the property owner / authorized user on a spatially delimited property. All regulations regarding the property are to be clearly displayed in house rules at all entrances to the delimited property.
- Grave monuments may only be erected with the written consent of the property owner / authorized user.
- Animal carcasses / ashes may not be buried / buried or scattered on public land, on public paths / places, areas used for agriculture and forestry and in the vicinity of water protection areas.
- When buried in the ground, animal bodies must be covered by at least 0.5 meters of earth.
- Coffins, urns and other containers must be environmentally friendly and be able to rot / dissolve in the ground.
- Minimum rest periods are not regulated by laws and ordinances; mostly they are part of the contracts with animal cemeteries.
In the event of abandonment , the relatives of the animals concerned listed in the cemetery register must be informed in good time.
The burial in your own garden or on your own property is bound by the above regulations, the grave is not abandoned .
See also
literature
- Susanna Kolbe: The dog is buried there , Marburg: Jonas, 2014. ISBN 978-3-89445-489-0 (on the cultural history of animal burial)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ First cemeteries for masters and pets. RP Online, May 12, 2015.
