Pet owners must dig up animal bodies at cemetery or lose remains, Michigan officials say

Pet owners may dig up their animals buried at a closing cemetery as a “gesture of goodwill” — or else they’ll lose the rights to the remains, the property owners said, according to media reports.

Heavenly Acres Pet Cemetery in Brighton, Michigan, closed because it didn’t own the land where an estimated 74,000 pets are buried, and the business’ lease expired last year, Livingston Daily reported. Now pet owners have three- to four-hour time slots on nine particular days to find where their pets are buried and exhume the bodies, according to WDIV.

Just finding a pet’s burial place among the thousands of graves can be difficult, as pictures of the cemetery show grasses and weeds overgrowing tombstones, according to WXYZ. Helen Boutorwick told the Detroit TV station she buried seven pets at the cemetery, including four that belonged to her mother, who died of cancer.

“I’m hoping she’s too busy playing with them in heaven to know what’s happening here,” Boutorwick told WXYZ.

Pat Mankin, who has a pet buried at the cemetery, said she met two people searching the cemetery for their dog, but they had a difficult time finding the tombstone, according WDIV. Mankin said the cemetery didn’t keep its promise, the Detroit TV station reported.

“Some of the people who have pets here are deceased, and they buried their pets here with the understanding that this was a forever place and clearly it’s not,” Mankin told WDIV.

In a letter, attorneys for the property owners said allowing an opportunity to dig up their animals’ remains is a “gesture of goodwill” but no other dates would be offered, Livingston Daily reported.

“When I got that letter I just lost it,” Boutorwick told the newspaper. “They are acting like we have antique watches out there, not fur babies.”

This story was originally published July 26, 2019 at 11:40 AM with the headline "Pet owners must dig up animal bodies at cemetery or lose remains, Michigan officials say."