NEWS

What will happen to dogs at Pet Cemetery?

Marina Gaytan
mgaytan@visaliatimesdelta.com
Rose Muchway had three dogs buried at the Visalia Pet Cemetery and planned on putting her current dog there later. The property is under new ownership and the status of paid plots and the future of the business are unknown. Photo taken on Thursday, February 4, 2016.

Editor’s note: This is the first story in a three-part series looking at the Visalia Pet Cemetery and what’s next for the owners whose pets remain at the shuttered cemetery.

Rose Muchway clenched a photo album full of pictures of her beloved dogs, memories she looks back at often. The 81-year-old is concerned about her animals, though, who are currently buried at the Visalia Pet Cemetery.

After ownership changed at the property, there has been much confusion about the cemetery's business status, who is allowed on the property and what will happen to the animals buried at the site.

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Muchway is also concerned about the fourth burial plot she paid for when her dog, Dollie, passes.

The Visalia Pet Cemetery is located at 30819 Road 144 near Golden West High School, just north of the St. Johns River.

Muchway said she would visit the cemetery monthly.That has changed. She refuses to go back after seeing the entire place wiped clean of statues and flowers.

“I felt like someone stabbed me in the back,” she said. “I don’t have much longer to live because of my health. My dogs are my life.”

Rose Muchway had three dogs buried at the Visalia Pet Cemetery and planned on putting her current dog there later. The property is under new ownership and the status of paid plots and the future of the business are unknown. Photo taken on Thursday, February 4, 2016.

It was in the early 2000s when Muchway purchased her first dog, Marquie, a miniature pincher. Muchway said she needed a companion after losing her husband and Marquie was the perfect companion dog.

When Marquie became ill and passed away, Muchway brought home Ore, a rat terrier and Meggie, a terrier Chihuahua mix.

Muchway said she has never had a problem with her pets or their headstones or statues prior to the current owners taking over. She said the former owners were even kind enough to pick up her dog from her house when it died.

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When both Ore and Meggie died, she made sure they had a headstone and a puppy statue to watch over them, items she paid hundreds of dollars for. For Meggie, she bought an angel statue, which is now gone.

Muchway said because her health is deteriorating, she went ahead and paid for a burial plot for Dollie back in 2008. She paid $200 each for her dogs’ final resting place. She has the paperwork as proof.

Muchway is concerned what the new owners may do to the land and the hundreds of pets buried there.

“My biggest concern is are they going to dig up my dogs and throw them away?” she said. “I paid money for that spot for them, and then for them to not even notify [me].”

Rose Muchway had three dogs buried at the Visalia Pet Cemetery and planned on putting her current dog there later. The property is under new ownership and the status of paid plots and the future of the business are unknown. Photo taken on Thursday, February 4, 2016.

During the time she was visiting the cemetery, Muchway said she also made some improvements.

In 2003, when she buried Meggie, Muchway said she witnessed an older woman becoming so sick over the death of her dogs, that the woman nearly passed out. That’s when Muchway said she had to step in to help.

Days later, with the permission from the former owners, Muchway purchased and set up a seating arena complete with a small bench, animal statues, rocks, shrubbery and a small metal gate.

“I set this up for everyone,” she said. “So, if someone came, like that lady who was so upset, they would have a place to sit down and cry.”

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Muchway also bought a tall St. Francis statue that she paid $40 for at a Lowe’s store.

“St. Francis was there for them,” she said.

Muchway said she’s not worried about the money she put into the cemetery for the headstones and statues, but wants to be reassured that her pets will be taken care of. She also wants to know what happened to the items she purchased. Most importantly, she wants to make sure Dollie will get her final resting place, just as she was promised when she paid for the burial plot.

One monument peaks above the grass growing in Visalia Pet Cemetery on Thursday, February 4, 2016. The status of paid plots and the future of the business are unknown.

Muchway said she doesn’t fully understand why the city of Visalia allowed the privately-owned pet cemetery to use the city's name in it.

“I think they should help me and stand behind me,” she said.

City Manager Mike Olmos said the Visalia Pet Cemetery is not a city facility, so city administrator don’t have anything to do with the way the cemetery conducts business. And, if a business wants to use the Visalia name, they are entitled to do so.

“That doesn’t mean the city authorized the use in any way,” he said.

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Olmos said whatever is going on at the pet cemetery is out of his hands because it’s within the county’s jurisdiction.

Eric Coyne, economic development coordinator, said in order to operate a pet cemetery, the owners would have needed a special use permit, and last time the county issued one was in the 1980s.

Specific dates on the permit were unavailable.

Muchway said she has written a letter to the current owners asking them to call her to work out the matter, but has heard nothing.

The son of the current owners, who initially declined to comment for this story, said his parents had to shut down the pet cemetery because people were vandalizing the property. He also said that anyone who has a pet can still go back there as long as they are there to visit their animals.

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Shawn Lloyd, who's had his black poodle Dynamite buried at the cemetery for 26 years, said he was told by the owners that if he wanted his pet, he was allowed to go back and dig her up, which is something he said he did last week.

“That was supposed to be her final resting place,” he said. “I didn’t want to do it; it’s my dog.”

Lloyd said he dug up Dynamite because he was afraid he would never get to visit her again.

“It’s pretty distressful,” he said.

Lloyd said he wishes the old owners would come forward so he could ask them about the money his family put forth for the burial and the headstone. He said he paid nearly $1,000 for Dynamite to be buried.

“It’s a bad situation,” he said. “I want it cleaned up so people can go back and visit their dogs.”

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