Clubhouse

Pet cemetery unearths project, publicity

In Lyon, Michigan, the Happy Hunting Grounds Memorial Park for Pets was so overgrown, many people didn’t know the town’s 70-year-old pet cemetery existed.

“And I was one of them!” says Joe Slaga, member of the Kiwanis Club of South Lyon and chairman of the club’s efforts to restore the cemetery.

The club got the dirt on the cemetery—and its need for maintenance—when it invited an area veterinarian to speak during a Kiwanis meeting. The veterinarian mentioned that a developer had purchased the land and needed help to turn it back into the peaceful, reflective place it had been in its glory days—and to provide ongoing maintenance.

“We agreed to take it on,” Joe says. “We thought it would be a good way to show the community what Kiwanis can do.”

The club organized a large-scale cleanup day and will continue maintaining the cemetery long-term. The housing developer will build a fence around the cemetery and install a wood-chip path.

According to an article in hometownlife.com, the Happy Hunting Grounds pet cemetery started in 1936 and was the final resting place for many beloved pets. Joe estimates about 1,000 markers in the cemetery, including a German shepherd statue “War Dog Memorial” marker dedicated to the services of dogs during World Wars I and II.

“There are a lot of pet lovers out there,” Joe says. “And many have expressed they are anxious to give us a hand and get (the grounds) looking like a cemetery again.”