http://newsobserver.com/news/nc/ncwi...-7793903c.html
Customers pine for pets after Greensboro cemetery closes
The Associated Press
GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Nadine Morris buried her gray spaniel Buffy on a pillow and covered it with a baby blanket to rest in peace. Faye Dawson sought eternal repose for Alfie, the black poodle named after a Johnny Mathis song.
Now grieving humans are faced with the a choice of paying hundreds of dollars more to rebury their pets or resign the remains to a landfill.
They have been barred from removing - or even visiting - their dead pets after Allen's Pet Cemetery suddenly closed after 17 years and locked its gate.
"I don't think this is fair at all," said Faye Dawson, who paid cemetery owner Judith Allen an annual $15 maintenance fee a week before it closed last month. "I'm not happy about it."
Unfortunately, the owners have no recourse, said Pauline Morrison, president of the Better Business Bureau of Central North Carolina. Unlike cemeteries for people, pet graveyards aren't regulated at any level of government in North Carolina, she said.
"There's nothing these people can do," she said. "It's a sad story, but true."
In August, Allen placed a sign in front of the cemetery's locked gate: "Bankrupt," it says. Despite the sign, Allen hadn't filed for federal bankruptcy court protection from creditors as of Wednesday.
Pet owners can no longer visit the grave sites, since Allen has posted "No Trespassing" signs across her 10-acre spread.
Allen has asked a competing pet cemetery to remove animals at their former owner's expense. Several already have, but others are questioning why the business's demise is now their responsibility.
"I put her there to be a permanent thing," said Morris. "I paid for it one time. I don't think I should pay for it again."
Allen, whose telephone has been disconnected, hasn't responded to written requests for an interview. She didn't return a telephone call left with a relative.
Jerry Groome, owner of St. Francis Pet Cemetery in Jamestown, said Allen is seriously ill and unable to maintain the cemetery. His telephone number is posted on a sign in front of the cemetery. Groome said Allen has given him - and only him - permission to enter the property and retrieve the animals.
Groome said Allen expects the land may eventually be sold to a developer who might bulldoze the property and dump the pet remains in a landfill.
Allen opened the cemetery in 1987 and was charging $285 for burial, $145 for blue-granite markers, plus the annual maintenance fee.
Groome believes there were about 100 pets buried there, many of which have been moved in the past week.
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