Recently I met with a homeowner about selling his home. While touring his property and discussing matters I observed what appeared to be a fresh grave in his suburban backyard. A pretty large one. The owner looked at the grave and then looked at me and said... "I can scrape off the fresh dirt so it's not so noticeable if you need me to."
Let that sink in for a minute and pretend you're me.
After what seemed like an eternal moment of awkward of silence he revealed that this is where he very recently buried his pet dog, a 120 pound Rottweiler.
That's a big animal.
What if he didn't bury it deep enough? What if it created an odor? What if it wasn't noticed by the buyer and six weeks later they discovered it while digging the area up for a pool? Would they then be forced to dispose of the carcass themselves? What if years went by and someone thought it was something else?
Do you have to disclose the burial of a pet? Should you? It makes me wonder how many dogs and other pets are buried in other backyards.
In this case the owner told me he dug about 2 feet under, which isn't deep enough in my opinion. I told him I could understand the loss, but disposing of a corpse (especially of this size) would need to be done in a more appropriate manner. Perhaps somewhere else.
The thought of buzzards and buyers noticing a fresh burial wasn't something I wanted to answer to. I don't believe it is appropriate to bury a dog in the backyard, although we did it when I was a kid. In fact, I've known of a lot of people who have done this.
What's your thought and why?
Comments(39)