Senate Committee Stalls Pet Burial Bill

For a lot of people their best friend in the world is not a human. It is their dog or their cat. Heck even the great writer and philosopher Mark Twain said,"The more I learn about people, the more I like my dog."

This undeniable bond between man and animal has been debated at the committee level in the Louisiana Senate. That committee has chosen not to advance the bill.

On the surface it might not seem like such a big deal. After the person and the pet, besides having an unconditional love for each other, also have another thing in common. They are both dead. Sorry to be so blunt but when looking at things from a legislative point of view you have to the emotions aside and go with straight hard facts.

Why would this bill not make it out of committee?

As usual it's the wording of the bill that has many people, including the Louisiana Cemetery Association concerned. Gerald Melancon is a spokesman for the Louisiana Cemetery Association and he explained his group's position to the Louisiana Radio Network.

And then now cemeteries come back to sub-divide that section and it all of a sudden becomes another section where you can bury humans and animals in the same place.

Melancon says his group feels until there is clarification on where and how the pets will be interred with their owners this bill can't move forward.

The bill's sponsor Conrad Appel of Metarie feels differently about the proposed legislation.

The rules are set by the cemetery. They aren't by the people or this language, they are set by the cemetery.

Obviously Appel is suggesting that whether or not pets are buried with their owners would be done on a cemetery by cemetery basis. His goal was to simply provide the legal platform that to occur.

There was no word as to whether or not the bill would be rewritten and reintroduced or it will be tabled for the entirety of this session of the legislature.