RICHMOND, VA — With nothing in commonwealth law to stop the executor of her will, the final request of a Virginia woman was honored and her healthy shih tzu mix, Emma, was euthanized so she and the dog could be laid to rest together.



Such requests aren't unheard of as pets increasingly occupy places on par with human members of a family, but most states forbid human-pet burials. At least part of the woman's instructions in her will wasn't illegal. The law in Virginia treats animals as property, so people can have pets put down if they want, regardless of the reason. Moral and ethical objections are another thing. The staff at Chesterfield Animal Shelter, where Emma was taken on March 8 after her owner died, found the request egregious and on multiple occasions tried to talk the executor of the will out of putting the dog down, news station WWBT reported.

They argued they could easily find a new home for Emma. Euthanizing a healthy dog was cruel and inhumane, they said. But, intent on following the dead woman's explicit instructions, representatives of her estate returned on March 22 and "redeemed the dog," then took her to a local veterinarian's office to be euthanized, Carrie Jones, the manager of Chesterfield Animal Shelter, told WWBT.

After Emma died, her remains were taken to a pet cremation center in Richmond and her ashes were placed in an urn to be buried with her human companion. Veterinarians generally frown on the practice of euthanizing healthy animals. Dr. Kenny Lucas, a veterinarian at the Shady Grove Animal Clinic, told WWBT the practice is inconsistent with the oath he and other vets have taken.

"Whenever we're faced with a euthanasia situation, it's a very emotional situation — and beyond everything we talk about — that we need to do ethically, and we've taken an oath to do," he said. "Also it's something we take home too. It weighs on us as professionals."

In Virginia, interring humans and pets in the same casket or urn is illegal, unless the burial takes place at a private or family-owned cemetery. Virginia law, amended in 2014, provides for pet and human burials if:

The pet is defined as a companion animal under state law;

The pet has its own casket and is not interred with human remains; and

The pet is interred in section of the cemetery clearly marked for both human and pet burials. "It's not legal to put a dog's cremated remains — or any animal — in a casket and bury them," Larry Spiaggi, the president of the Virginia Funeral Directors Association and a funeral home owner, told WWBT. Spiaggi told WWBT outlet he finds abhorrent the idea of killing an animal so it can be buried with its human owner.