Is It Legal to Bury Your Pet on Your Property in Michigan?
Simply put, yes, its legal to bury your pet on your property if you live in Michigan. However, there are a couple of rules that youll need to follow.
According to Nursing Pets, in Michigan, your pets must be buried or disposed of within 24 hours. In addition, you have to bury them at least 2 feet deep and 2.5 feet away from other pet graves. Make sure to bury them away enough from a water source as well.
If youre renting a home from someone, you should probably get permission before you start digging holes for dead pets.
What States Don’t Allow You to Bury Your Pet in Your Yard?
In some states, pet burial is illegal or partially illegal. Those states include the following:
Some states dont have any laws regarding pet burial at all.
I grew up in the country and we never thought twice about burying our pets in the backyard. Every pet we ever owned is buried on my parents property. Its basically a pet cemetery that dates back 40-plus years.
Want to know how to contact the Michigan Department of Agriculture & Rural Development? On this page you will find phone numbers, email addresses, snail mail addresses, and online contact forms for everything we do here at MDARD. We even have a complaint form for those of you with complaints. Divisions
The Michigan Department of Agriculture & Rural Developments rules entitled “Bodies of Dead Animals” for on farm composting were approved with the Great Seal on September 26, 2007. The rules provide for composting of dead animals and animal tissue within a structure, in open piles, windrows, and contained vessels. These additional alternatives for disposal of dead animals will assist producers who have no rendering services, licensed landfills that accept dead animals, or soil types for proper burial.
