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Saturday, June 18, 2016

Pet cemetery 'nightmare' at Delaware SPCA

Hundreds of animals are buried in a pet cemetery behind the Stanton Delaware SPCA. Pet owners were notified through Facebook that they could claim the bodies and head stones of their beloved animals before the land is sold.
Today, the Delaware SPCA, the state’s oldest animal welfare organization that once handled dog control for all three counties, will shutter its Stanton facility and continue negotiations to sell the sprawling, nearly 21-acre property.

But what’s buried three feet under threatens to derail the deal.

Behind the newly renovated shelter building at 455 Stanton Christiana Road is a weedy, overgrown lot that contains the bagged remains of more than 1,000 animals — in what was meant to be their final resting place. The inhabitants include "Captain," the country's first police dog; Igloo, the Brandywine Zoo bear; Minnie Pearl, a goat; and mother-daughter poodles Brigitte and Babette.

But with potential commercial development banging on the door of the cash-strapped nonprofit organization, irate pet owners are being told that they have until the end of the month to remove their pets' headstones, along with exhuming and relocating what's left of the animals' bodies, if they so choose.

"That is going to be a heartbreaking nightmare," said Kurt Gingher, who spent a recent steamy weekend using a scraper to clear off several hundred stones until he found the two marked with his pets' names. An Internet company owner who lives in Thailand, Gingher happened to be in town visiting his family in Elsmere when he heard about the shelter closure.

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The person who buys this property will find that it's haunted by all of those animals. People will be awakened at night by howling and scratching at their doors.

Anonymous said...

This is appalling some of the owners have probably died themselves. It is not right why can't it just be where grass is cut and a sign designating that it is a pet cemetery. This would be more appropriate than what is being done. Save the tombstones for the families to claim them or put them together. Plant some trees around the area if the new owners think it is unsightly. In short have a heart.

Anonymous said...

They never heard of "Rest in Peace", next they will want relatives to dig up family members from cemetery land so someone can sell it and get rich!

Anonymous said...

The new owners should have to pay for
having the animals taken up!!