Local

Pet owners working to get cell tower removed from pet cemetery

KENT, Wash. — Some local pet owners are fighting mad.

They want to remove a cell tower, which was set up in the middle of a pet cemetery where their beloved animals are buried.

They have filed a complaint with the state Department of Licensing, hoping to get rid of the massive tower that they said is desecrating, what they feel, is a sacred space.

“She was 4 pounds,” said Dana Yang, of Issaquah, as she walked over to where her cherished pet is buried at the Seattle Pet Cemetery off Military Road in Kent.

“Right here,” she said, “Daisy.”

But instead of a clear, open sky looming over Daisy’s final resting place, there now stands a 100-foot cell tower.

“This tall, this intruding, invasive and not a good sight in a cemetery where we come to pray for our pets that’s gone to heaven,” said Yang.

Neighbors are upset, too, still chafing after they said King County officials dismissed their protests, calling the area a landfill.

“That makes no sense,” said Dennis Jaraczeski, a 40-year resident. “All you have to do is walk out and see a sight that’s been here for 70 years. And there are humans along with the pets here. So it has a long historical history of it being a cemetery.”

As it happens, pet cemeteries are not licensed in the state of Washington. And the law does allow cremated human remains to be here, too.

“So here we have Velma Graybill,” said Julie Seitz, reading from a gravestone. “She was born in 1934 and passed in 2017.”

Seitz is leading the campaign, collecting signatures to undo what she sees as a terrible wrong.

“And have been working to oppose, and we have not stopped,” she said. “Even though it’s been built because we believe it has been built in bad faith.”

They believe state law mandates that this is a cemetery and a cemetery alone.

“We know that we have humans and we have pets and canine officer, at least one,” she said. “And we are trying to protect their graves. We’re hurt. And we’re angry, too.”

A spokeswoman at the Department of Licensing said the complaint has been assigned to a case manager to determine if DOL even has jurisdiction over this issue.

In the meantime, the group has a GoFundMe page to help them in their fight.