New York pet cemeteries to allow human remains be buried alongside beloved family pets

Pet owners can now spend eternity in the dog house. A new regulation unveiled by the state this month will allow pet cemeteries in New York to accept the cremated remains of human beings hoping to be buried forever beside their beloved family pets. The new rules resolve a two-year-old dispute that began when the state refused to allow the Hartsdale Pet Cemetery in Westchester to accept the ashes of a former NYPD officer who wanted to spend his afterlife with his three Maltese pups.

The police officer’s niece, upstate attorney Taylor York, took on her uncle’s cause and battled the state to allow the burial. “People do get a sense of comfort from knowing they can lie for eternity with their beloved pet, that they can be loved and protected in the afterlife just as faithfully as when they were alive,” York said. York’s campaign began when her uncle, retired NYPD officer Thomas Ryan, died in 2011 and New York Department of State barred the Hartsdale Cemetery from accepting his ashes.

 The 117-year-old Hartsdale cemetery, which claims to be the oldest final pet resting place in the country, had been interring cremated human remains since the the 1920s and had already buried the remains of Ryan’s wife, Bunny, beside the couples three Maltese dogs, DJ 1, DJ 2 and DJ 3. “They didn’t have any children,” York said. “Each (Maltese), was their pride and joy.” But when it came time for Ryan to rest beside his wife and dogs, the state said no, asserting that state law prohibited Hartsdale from handling human remains.
After an intense campaign from York and other Hartsdale patrons, the Department of State relented in late 2011 and allowed the cemetery to accept human remains - but the six other pet cemeteries across the state were still prohibited from putting granny in the ground next to Fluffy or Fido. Now, this month’s rule change will allow New York pet owners from every corner of the state to play fetch for eternity with loved ones of any species or breed - as long as pet cemeteries don’t charge a fee for a human burial and don’t advertise their human burial services.