PARIS ERECTS CREMATORIUM FOR DOGS

Shannon News, 26 April 1929, Page 1

PARIS ERECTS CREMATORIUM FOR DOGS

. A crematorium for aristocratic dogs is now being erected in Paris. It will be part of the magnificent dog cemetery that" is one of the most curious sights of the French capital, and that in its own way compares favourably with any of the other cometeries of the city. "The reason we are building this crematorium is that there is an incrcas- | ing demand or fashion, if yCu wish to call ife. among owners to keep the ashes of their pets near them," explained an official of the cemetery. "They love their dogs so much that they don't even like to be separated from them in death. As you .see by the inscriptions on several of the tombstones, some women declare that the only true friendship they ever enjoyexl on this earth was that of their dog. "Until now it was -impossible for these owners to have their pets crelated, as the crematoriums -refused to accept animals, and we had so many

request.* 'of'this sort that we finally H deeided to build our own in a corner ;'vof the cemetery, and it is now almost .u completed." ,* Tne most interesting thing in the. :.' cometery is a monument hi memory Barry,, a famous St. Bernard, that , " i; " faces the entrance. This dog, which -' .•» belonged to the St. Bernai'd hospice in . ~ ;l the Alps, saved the livos of forty sons, but was killed by the forty-first, '.'v, a erased Italian, who was lost in a' V; snowstorm, and believed that si wild - ' ; - beast was attacking him. He was the *;;'' be?t dog the monks ever possessed, and )'. his stuffed body now stands in the Swiss State Museum at Berne. The 't most faithful dog of every generation 'jis now called Barry. * The cemetery is tliyidoa into sec- ',',' tions, which have been named after ■>" ; well-known dog lovers. The first ,on the right is the Henry Bataille section, ■ where all the dogs of the great dra- . "' niatist are sleeping .their last sleep. A. little further on is the tomb of Krou- '/■ mir, the favourite cut of the writer ';■ Henry Bochcfort, "died of chagrin-:H ten days after her master—July 10, '■ I 1913. "* si •<*;■ On a nearby tomb was the inscrip- /■ tion 'Step softly near this tomb. Gil- *]M lette, my treasure, is not dead * butj*« sleeps since Feb. 5, 3921, aged 31 years; His inconsolable, mother." "-JM