Barrington board allows dog walking in cemeteries

Official reminds residents to pick up after their dogs

EastBayRI.com ·

The Barrington Cemetery Commission recently made the decision to allow dog walking on local cemeteries, but officials might be second-guessing that move.

Shortly after allowing dog walkers onto the cemeteries, a neighbor to Forest Chapel Cemetery on Nayatt Road alerted the commission chairwoman of a problem. The neighbor discovered that people had deposited nearly a dozen plastic bags containing dog feces on top of a stone wall near the entrance to the property.

'Dog poop bags' tacked to utility pole.

"This is not the neighborly thing to do," wrote Susan Taylor, chairwoman of the commission. "So if you see this happening, please speak up and remind your neighbor that it's important to take care of your pet and to respect your neighbors, even those who are in the cemetery."

Ms. Taylor said the commission had made the change recently to permit dog walking in the cemeteries — it had been prohibited in the rules and regulations previously — on "the premise that most people, being good neighbors, and who are usually responsible as pet owners, would be a regular recurring presence in the cemeteries thereby a natural discouragement to mischief-makers with too much time on their hands."

The commission had previously banned folks from walking their dogs on local cemeteries, and local Rep. Jan Malik had proposed legislation that would ban pets from the grounds of the state Veterans' Memorial Cemetery in Exeter. 

One local resident, Fred Warrender, disagreed with banning dogs from local cemeteries.

"The paved walkway is great and we stick to it, except when I see the American flags laying on the ground from the wind that often blows very hard on that hill," wrote Mr. Warrender in a letter. "I cannot walk away and ignore the flags laying on the ground. My dog and I walk into the area and pick up every flag and place them in their holders. My dog never does her business at this point of our walk. If she ever did, I would pick it up as I always do…"

Ms. Taylor said she wishes everyone would follow that lead.