Writer Says He Placed Pet Ashes in Coffins Despite Legal Ban

A writer told the Hay Festival that he had placed the ashes of dogs inside owners' coffins on multiple occasions. He said the practice violated rules separating human and animal remains. The writer said he would visit undertakers with the ashes and place them in coffins before they were sealed.

He compared the actions to earlier clergy who buried people who died by suicide in consecrated ground despite church rules.

The writer stated that his role did not include placing limits on God's mercy. He said animal ashes could not legally be buried with human remains under Environment Agency rules. The same rules also restrict scattering animal ashes in graveyards and most crematoria. The writer added that mercy should be as wide as the sea and that people should live in accordance with that principle.

Archaeological records show humans have been buried with animals in earlier periods. Anglo-Saxon nobles in Britain were occasionally buried with horses. The writer also described a hospital visit in which a patient told him to stop reading prayers and allow a quiet death.