A Harrogate woman has spoken of her distress when a visit to her five-year-old daughter’s grave was interrupted by a dog let off its lead to defecate among the headstones.
Joanne Bolton’s daughter Charlotte died of meningitis 25 years ago and is buried in Grove Road cemetery. Ms Bolton’s mother is also buried there.
She was visiting on Sunday when a woman entered the cemetery, closed the gates and let her dog off its lead to exercise. The large cemetery is surrounded by a wall so dogs are unable to escape when the gates are closed.
The dog owner then sat on the bench and let her Terrier defecate freely around the cemetery, which includes the graves of 37 former soldiers. Ms Bolton said:
“I’m disappointed that society has sunk to this level to have no respect for loved ones’ final resting places.”
Grove Road cemetery
Guide dogs are the only dogs permitted in Harrogate Borough Council cemeteries.
Ms Bolton, who owns a dog herself, said she would have no problem with people walking their pets on leads around the perimeter path but said it was completely unacceptable to allow animals to roam freely.
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She contacted the council about the incident and received a prompt reply confirming dogs weren’t allowed inside cemeteries and that ‘no dogs’ signs had been erected.
The email added the council’s dog wardens had patrolled the area but it was unable to use CCTV to capture culprits because it would encroach on the privacy of visitors.
‘Always the same disrespectful people’
A post by Ms Bolton on a Harrogate Facebook group attracted many sympathetic comments.
One woman said there were five dogs in the cemetery when she went to pay her respects. Another said the incident gave dog owners a bad name and a third person, who lives next door to the graveyard, said they see about 25 dogs daily in the cemetery. They added:
“It’s always the same disrespectful people daily. I have complained to the council but nothing gets done.
But one woman said the presence of dogs and dog walkers had deterred drug dealers from using the site.
