Cemetery is not a dog park
This morning I drove to Oddfellows Cemetery on University Drive here in Starkville. I have many family members and dear friends that are buried there. When I turned into the cemetery I was shocked and deeply hurt to see five college students walking dogs there.
The dogs were digging up some of the graves and relieving themselves on tombstones and graves. I stopped these students and asked why they were walking dogs in the cemetery and allowing them to desecrate graves of people who had family members that had loved them and don’t want their graves used as bathrooms for dogs. One boy replied, “The landlord suggested me bring them here because there is no yard where we live.”
Well, shame, shame, shame on whoever that landlord might be.
A grave of one of my beloved family members had been dug deeply by a dog and the lilies I had planted there were gone. One girl was nice and said she would continue walking her dog there because she had no other place, but she would “try” to see that she didn’t dig up fresh dirt on graves anymore. She went on to say the dog “just loves to dig.” All five students agreed that everyone else uses this cemetery for a dog park and they were going to continue because “Nobody can stop us.”
Needless to say, I left very upset. Just to think that college students haven’t been taught respect for other’s property and especially respect for the dead. I asked those students how they would feel if the graves belonged to their parents or loved ones and one said “I wouldn’t like it.” Yet, what gives them the right to treat our dearly departed in such a terrible manner.
I do not know who owns the cemetery, but there should be a ban placed on all dogs with a stiff fine for any dog seen in that cemetery. This is an outrage and should be stopped.
This is an appeal to those that are guilty to please stop this practice and let us have this final resting place for our loved ones as a memorial to them and not as a bathroom for dogs.
Ellen Kendall
Starkville
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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