Dog’s owner discovers Manitoba pet cemetery in ruins, headstone missing

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/06/2015 (3985 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After Choo Rosenbloom lost her husband, Earl, to cancer last November, her search for comfort took her to the gravesite of their beloved dog, Angel.

It was gone.

During the eight years Rosenbloom had been caring for her husband, no one has been caring for Misty Gardens Pet Cemetery near La Salle. In fact, its former owners disappeared and the property was sold.

When Rosenbloom arrived a few weeks ago at the pet burial location at which she and many other people purchased burial plots and ornate headstones to mark their pets’ final resting places, the cemetery was in ruins.

“It used to be a place of love and beauty. So quiet and peaceful,” Rosenbloom said. “Lots of people buried their pets there. Some people had their whole family of pets there. I don’t know if my dog is still buried there. It’s really, really sad.”

Rosenbloom found the spot where Angel, a sheltie who was 14 when she died, had been buried. She knew the exact location from memory and photographs but Angel’s headstone was missing. The large black granite marker with gold lettering, including the phrase “true blue Texas trooper” and a ceramic picture of Angel mounted on it, could not be found.

“I didn’t know what to expect, and I was hoping things there were like they were before. I was hoping for the best and expecting the worst. It was the worst,” she said. “There’s still a lot of headstones.”

Tax arrears, closed by health inspectors

Phone numbers have been disconnected for former Misty Gardens owner Gail Harrison at both the La Salle property and her former home at St. François Xavier as well as for her brother, Bruce Hedge.

What Rosenbloom didn’t know was Harrison was in arrears in property taxes and with the Canada Revenue Agency. She had heard the other business on the property — Domestic Animal Cremations — had been shut down by the province.

A horrific chain of events led to the property being eventually sold off by the government.

In August 2007, two pet owners who paid to have their deceased pets cremated by Domestic Animal Cremations filed complaints to Manitoba Conservation after they did not receive urns containing the remains. Conservation and provincial health inspectors went to the La Salle and St. François Xavier properties and found bags of rotting animal remains scattered on the properties.

Officials from Manitoba Health and Conservation shut down the crematorium and issued orders for a cleanup of the animal remains and biohazardous materials found on the La Salle property.

It’s not clear if any charges were faced by Harrison or Hedge.

She and Earl had paid $1,531.20 in 2002 for the headstone, an oak casket and perpetual care to maintain the site. When Earl was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2006, Choo devoted her attention to her husband. She trusted Misty Gardens was maintaining Angel’s resting place.

Now, Rosenbloom is grieving again. She said she feels as though she’s lost their dog all over again, and she would love to get her back. Even though the headstone is gone, she believes Angel’s remains may still be buried there.

“I would like to see if I could afford to, I would like to buy that property where my dog was buried and just leave it be. Let it be this resting place,” she said. “It makes me sad that it was sold, and people who had pets there didn’t get the chance to go and get them, if they wanted to.”

Current owner plans to build house

Current owner Damian Rakowski, who bought the property in the fall of 2007, said he hasn’t touched any of the headstones that were once part of Misty Gardens Pet Cemetery.

“If something’s not there, it wouldn’t have been me, it would have been the previous owner,” he said. “So far, I’ve left everything intact. We cut the grass there. It’s not golf-course pretty, but it’s cut.”

Rakowski said the property was never zoned as a cemetery; it is farmland.

“We’re planning on building a house there,” he said.

Rakowski said those who have a pet buried at Misty Gardens and want to reclaim their headstones should contact him through email to arrange it at Damian_rakowski@hotmail.com.

“I’m absolutely fine (with it) but I would just like people to contact me first,” he said.

Rakowski said the property has been vandalized even though the buildings on the property were emptied of their former contents before he took ownership.

“When I bought the property, I had the door kicked in three times in the first three months,” he said. “I’m happy to help these people, but I just don’t want anyone out there (unless he is there).”

Rakowski said he is in the process of having a security system installed.

ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca