Pet Cemeteries: How We Came to Bury Our Best Nonhuman Friends
When a little dog named Cherry died in 1881, his owners arranged for a grave in a nearby gatekeeper’s garden in London. At this time, the idea that a pet, even one that had lived as a family member, might be given a dignified burial was considered comical. But when other pet owners followed suit, the world’s first urban pet cemetery was born. More soon followed, and the idea eventually spread throughout the world. The talk will detail the history—always touching, oft times comical, and sometimes weird—of the people who fought to give birth to the ideal that an animal that has been loved as a family deserves the same care and dignity in death.
Paul Koudounaris has a PhD in Art History from UCLA. He is the author of three books on the visual culture of death, Empire of Death, Heavenly Bodies, and Memento Mori, as well as a history of domestic felines, A Cat’s Tale, co-written by his cat Baba, and named a Barnes and Noble Book of the Year in 2020. Faithful Unto Death, his book on pet cemeteries and animal burials, the world’s first definitive history of the subject, was published in October, 2024.
don’t worry if you miss it – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day
