Margie Fishman

The News Journal

The Delaware SPCA, the state’s oldest animal welfare organization that once handled dog control for all three counties, shuttered its Stanton facility Friday and is negotiating to sell the sprawling, nearly 21-acre property.

But what’s buried three feet under threatens to derail the deal.

Behind the newly renovated shelter building at 455 Stanton Christiana Road is a weedy, overgrown lot that contains the bagged remains of more than 1,000 animals — in what was meant to be their final resting place. The inhabitants include "Captain," the country's first police dog; Igloo, the Brandywine Zoo bear; Minnie Pearl, a goat; and mother-daughter poodles Brigitte and Babette.

But with potential commercial development banging on the door of the cash-strapped nonprofit organization, irate pet owners have been told that they have until the end of the month to remove their pets' headstones, along with exhuming and relocating what's left of the animals' bodies, if they so choose.

"That is going to be a heartbreaking nightmare," said Kurt Gingher, who spent a recent steamy weekend using a scraper to clear off several hundred stones until he found the two marked with his pets' names. An Internet company owner who lives in Thailand, Gingher happened to be in town visiting his family in Elsmere when he heard about the shelter closure.

Confusion persists after the shelter closed Friday. On Saturday afternoon, Linda Cohan said she attempted to collect the remains and headstones of her childhood poodle, Coquette, and her grandmother’s Boston bulldog, Mitzi, both of whom were buried in the 1970s.

She said a woman on the SPCA's grounds turned her away and threatened to call the police.

“I don’t know what the plan is. Nobody knows anything,” said Cohan of Boothwyn, Pennsylvania. The woman couldn’t provide her with any information, she said, and told her to contact the Delaware SPCA’s board or its Georgetown location.

A representative from Georgetown spoke to Cohan by phone Saturday but said he had no information, Cohan said. Delaware SPCA leaders did not return phone calls from The News Journal Saturday. Reached by phone, Interim Board President Diane Ferry, an associate management professor at the University of Delaware, declined comment. She referred questions to a Delaware SPCA spokesperson, whom she identified as Andrea Perlak. Perlak resigned as the organization's executive director at the end of last month and did not respond to a phone call and email Saturday.

And there's another curious twist: Somewhere on the property are the ashes of a human, a female pet owner who asked to be buried alongside her dog, according to a former director of the Delaware SPCA and board meeting minutes.

Through its attorney Geoffrey R. Johnson of Jenkintown, Pennslyvania, the Delaware SPCA recently told The News Journal that line of questioning was "absurd."

The Delaware SPCA “has no knowledge of any human remains on our Stanton property," the organization wrote.

But former longtime Delaware SPCA director John Caldwell remembers. Caldwell, who joined the organization as an animal control officer in 1974 and remained there for 33 years, said he personally saw the headstone, though he could not recall the name of the individual, and confirmed the burial with Delaware SPCA’s former cemetery caretaker.

The News Journal obtained Delaware SPCA board meeting minutes from December 1980 showing that the board approved interring "Miss Ligon's ashes" in the cemetery. No further details were listed.

A pet cemetery contract from 1973, also obtained by The News Journal, shows that nationally recognized sculptor, Maurine Ligon, buried her collie, Lady, behind the Delaware SPCA in 1973. Ligon, who lived and worked in the half-octagonal old town library on East Third Street in New Castle, died in 1980 due to complications from a car accident, according to New Castle Historical Society records.

The day before the accident, Ligon visited Lady's grave at the Delaware SPCA and complained about grass covering the tiny plot. The impassioned dog lover had no living relatives, the historical society said.

Pet cemeteries are not regulated by federal or state governments because animal remains are considered "solid waste" under Delaware law. But human cemeteries fall under the state's authority.

If a human is buried on the property, the SPCA would need to register that specific plot as a cemetery, committing to its care in perpetuity. Otherwise, the organization would need to apply for a permit to relocate the remains, said Emily Knearl, a spokeswoman for the state Division of Public Health. The health department is still waiting for the SPCA to confirm that a human is, indeed, buried on-site. On Friday, after The News Journal published an earlier version of this story online, the health department wrote a formal letter to the Delaware SPCA reminding the organization of its obligations, Knearl said.

In the meantime, Delaware SPCA’s land, located next to the Border Café in Stanton, is being marketed for $9.8 million. Proceeds from the sale are expected to benefit Delaware SPCA’s smaller Georgetown shelter, the only animal shelter in Sussex County.

Besides the Delaware SPCA, with its properties in Stanton and Georgetown, there are two other SPCA organizations working in the First State –– and none are affiliated.

By consolidating services and moving the remaining adoptable animals to Sussex County, according to a post the Delaware SPCA made on its Facebook page last month, the organization expects to “create the most financially stable animal welfare organization the state.”

Until then, the dismantling of the half-century-old cemetery, one of the largest pet cemeteries in the state, is the most visible reminder of an organization that has struggled for years amid dwindling grant dollars, lost contracts and escalating expenses.

Current SPCA leaders maintain that the nonprofit had to cut programs and staff in the last two years to address persistent operating deficits at the organization for nearly a decade, exacerbated by an out-of-state animal control provider securing a statewide contract to handle dog control. The Brandywine Valley SPCA, with headquarters in West Chester, Pennsylvania, established its satellite shelter in Old New Castle.

Former Delaware SPCA employees –– who requested anonymity because they feared retaliation –– criticized senior SPCA leadership for pursuing costly for-profit ventures on the property that never materialized, such as a commercial retail strip, an estimated $1.4 million doggie daycare and boarding services, at the expense of the SPCA's core mission of preventing animal cruelty.

Michael Gallagher, who resigned from the board last year after eight years, also said there were issues.

“The spending got out of control,” said Gallagher.

In the weeks following the shelter closing announcement, a majority of current board members and Perlak have either declined comment or did not respond to phone calls from The News Journal.

Earlier this month, the Delaware SPCA's attorney provided email responses to some of the questions posed by the newspaper.

“Decreasing competition in New Castle County by closing the Stanton shelter and thereby decreasing the number of competing shelters from four down to three shelters will benefit all the remaining animal shelters in the country,” the organization wrote.

STORY: Delaware SPCA to close Stanton shelter

Disappointed community members are circulating an online petition, with more than 1,500 signatures as of Saturday evening, urging the board to reverse its decision and save the building on secluded land, which was donated to Delaware SPCA by the late philanthropist Emily du Pont.

Du Pont's granddaughter Emily Bramhall, who lives in Massachusetts, signed the petition after learning of the land sale. She said her grandmother, a staunch conservationist and animal advocate who cared for three to four dogs at any one time, would never have condoned such a sale. The family is weighing next steps, said Bramhall, who hopes that Delaware Attorney General Matt Denn will intervene.

"I can assure you this was never her intent," Bramhall said. "What they are doing is breaking the trust. And what does that say to future donors?"

Neighbors will not only lose a state-of-the-art shelter but also Delaware SPCA's low-cost vaccination clinics, spay and neuter services and a pet food pantry for low-income owners. The 30-some feral cats who live in igloos on the property are expected to be trapped and moved to Georgetown, according to a volunteer caretaker.

Patti Flinn, of New Castle, is vowing to fight. In 1991, Flinn paid $300 to bury her Cocker Spaniel, Jody, at the SPCA’s pet cemetery. A copy of her signed contract shows the term limit crossed out with a series of typewritten Xs. In its place is "perpetual care" written in blue ink.

"Unbelievable," Flinn said of Delaware SPCA's intentions to shutter the facility and leave for Sussex County. The reason "you go to a pet cemetery is you always have a place to go back to."

Multiple cemetery contracts reviewed by The News Journal, including one completed as recently as 1998, specify that “the Delaware SPCA guarantees continued use and upkeep of the grave site for the period of twenty-five (25) years." The Delaware SPCA stopped burying animals more than a decade ago, after offering the service for the last half-century, according to cemetery records.

If the Delaware SPCA fails to abide by its contract terms, it could risk being sued for breach of contract, according to two national cemetery experts interviewed by The News Journal.

"If they have a contract with the people, they're bound by it," said Poul Lemasters, a funeral industry attorney who consults on pet burials.

In an email last week to The News Journal, the Delaware SPCA wrote that customers can "collect a refund on their contract if they so desire. Any gravestones not collected at the time of sale of the property will be collected and a memorial will be created in Georgetown."

Michael Smith, the lone board member who agreed to speak with The News Journal, said he missed the previous two board meetings and could not comment on the board's plans for the pet cemetery. He said he would advocate for leaving the area undisturbed.

Four pet owners interviewed by The News Journal said they visited the shelter in the last two weeks only to be told by Delaware SPCA staffers that they could not provide a map of the cemetery showing where individual pets had been buried, nor could they help with removing remains. Volunteers have worked to expose the headstones, marking them with orange flags. Last week, an older couple, who declined to be identified, began the task of unearthing their pets’ bones.

As of earlier this month, Delaware's Office of Animal Welfare had received no complaints about the SPCA cemetery. But the office has no jurisdiction over pet cemeteries, which are self-regulated.

The fate of the cemetery isn't the only obstacle to what could be a lucrative land deal for the Delaware SPCA. A Newark developer is suing the animal welfare organization, trying to block the property sale.

Under a 2012 agreement, the SPCA hired Bariglio Corporation to help recruit commercial tenants for the front portion of its property, providing a sustainable source of income. But last year, the SPCA initiated sales discussions with other parties without Bariglio's consent and in violation of its contract, according to a lawsuit filed earlier this year in Chancery Court.

The Delaware SPCA has moved to dismiss all of Bariglio's claims, arguing that Bariglio "does not allege any damages flowing from the alleged breaches that would warrant injunctive relief."

While the case is ongoing, at least one offer for the land is on the table.

Fusco Management, which owns two neighboring properties, submitted an offer to buy roughly half of Delaware SPCA's property about two weeks ago and is awaiting a response, according to Vice President Frankie Vassallo. He said he first offered to buy the land from the SPCA about five years ago but was turned down.

Vassallo said he's only interested in the back portion of the SPCA property that contains the shelter building to expand his company's ownership stake in the area, rather than develop it immediately. He was not aware of the cemetery dispute.

"Obviously, we would want all of that resolved," he said. "I'm not taking on any of the sellers' obligations."

Pet cemeteries escape regulation

In 1979, a News Journal article described caretakers gently lowering the bodies of deceased pets into Delaware SPCA's cemetery. Then-director Patricia Caswell praised the nonprofit for providing "the perpetual care of the grave." Pet parents decorated stones with lilies on Easter and poinsettias on Christmas.

Less than a decade later, in a letter to a pet owner obtained by The News Journal, then-Delaware SPCA employee Michelle Milliard wrote the cemetery contract specified a 10-year guaranteed interment.

"This clause is included, but will never be put into effect," Milliard wrote, "so you don't have to worry about 'Tipper' being moved."

By 1998, owners didn't receive such assurances. A copy of Margery Gilmore's cemetery contract for Muffin, her purebred poodle, grants Delaware SPCA the right to remove the headstone and repurpose the grave for another animal after maintaining the site for 25 years. The contract further states that Delaware SPCA "will attempt to notify the previous purchaser," who has six months to claim the stone.

Though Gilmore of Wilmington has seven years left on her contract, she, like three other pet owners interviewed, said she was never directly notified by Delaware SPCA that the property would be sold. In recent years, the cemetery has been neglected, Gilmore said, with knee-high grass obscuring the flat stones.

The retiree, who has another poodle mix, Pepe, buried on-site with his favorite toy and blanket, has no interest in a legal battle. She plans to enlist help in removing her dogs' headstones and placing one on her late husband's grave, and the other on the adjacent marker meant for her.

"There really isn't anything there," she said of the remains.

Two other pet owners interviewed by The News Journal, one of whom had moved to Georgia, were similarly resigned.

The Delaware SPCA wrote on its Facebook page recently that staff and volunteers were cleaning up the headstones "and we are letting people dig up their animals after the 17th (of June) if they wish to."

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By shifting the onus to the public, Delaware SPCA won't have to apply for a solid waste permit to dig up the remains and move them elsewhere, according to Michael Globetti, a spokesman for the state Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.

But that doesn't shield the organization from legal responsibility, according to Bob Fells, executive director and general counsel for the International Cemetery, Cremation & Funeral Association.

“The (Delaware) SPCA is going to have to honor those contracts or it’s a good way to be sued," he said.

"If I have six months to move a marker, I should have at least six months to move a pet," echoed Lemasters, a Cincinnati, Ohio-based attorney.

Ligon's burial could pose another quagmire for Delaware SPCA. She was an acclaimed sculptor and a former instructor for the Rehoboth Art League, who exhibited at the National Academy of Design in New York. In 1965, she unveiled her bronze bust of President John F. Kennedy in the lobby of a Hot Shoppe restaurant on the Delaware turnpike. She had smashed her first five attempts, according to a news article written at the time.

The bust finally had to be roped off because people kept kissing and rubbing it, marring its patina.

Ligon was also a pioneer anesthetist, who trained at the Mayo Clinic and invented several surgical instruments, including a resuscitation device for newborn babies. At the time of her car accident, she had lost sight in one eye and was driving in her station wagon — as always— with her dog, Kahoutek, according to a news report.

Lady was Ligon's first love, according to a biography of Ligon written by the artist's friend and on record at the historical society.

"At the grave, Maurine could meditate and feel close to the dog she had buried there," the friend wrote.

This isn't the first time Delaware SPCA has dealt with uprooting its cemetery. In 1973, the nonprofit paid to relocate its pet cemetery when it moved to Stanton after its previous property was annexed for expansion of the New Castle County Airport.

That precedent is important, said Lemasters, adding that a new property owner would inherit the cemetery controversy if it isn't dealt with now.

Rob Thomas, who grew up near the SPCA's former facility, "never dreamt it would come this."

When he buried his childhood cat, Tabby, in 1991, Thomas couldn't have imagined he'd be hiring a grave digger to move the remains of his cat more than 50 miles to a cemetery in Fallston, Maryland. Thomas chose Highview Memorial Gardens because that's where his other cat, Lionheart, is buried. Given that Memorial Gardens is a human cemetery with a pet section, it is unlikely to be disrupted, he reasoned.

Tammie Phillips, who manages Highview's Pet Haven at Memorial Gardens, hears that a lot from clients. During Pet Haven's 38 years in business, at least two other pet cemeteries nearby have closed, she said. Pet burials at Highview cost $500 and workers mow the grounds twice a week.

A search in Delaware turned up only one other large pet cemetery, Henlopen Memorial Park in Milton, which is mainly a human cemetery.

With more than 750 active pet cemeteries and crematories across the U.S., only a handful have made headlines for closing abruptly, leaving grieving owners with little recourse. Cremation continues to dominate the "pet after-care market," industry experts say.

When the Kansas Humane Society relocated in 2007, it offered to cremate the pets' remains for free and return them to their owners in urns. In 2013, a shelter run by the Western Pennsylvania Humane Society closed but kept its pet cemetery open.

Absent clear government guidelines, the International Association of Pet Cemeteries and Crematories started an accreditation program last year based on best practices. More than 250 members, representing 15 countries, must agree to perpetual care on deed-restricted land, said Donna Shugart-Bethune, the association's executive director.

"If those restrictions aren't in place or planned for," she said, "they don't have a lot of options."

Contact Margie Fishman at (302) 324-2882, on Twitter @MargieTrende or mfishman@delawareonline.com.