IPSWICH Pet Cemetery is full and can take no more burials.Ivan Chittock, 50, an accountant, opened the Pet Cemetery in 1979 as a part time business venture, allowing burials in his one and a third acre back garden on Tuddenham road.
IPSWICH Pet Cemetery is full and can take no more burials.
Ivan Chittock, 50, an accountant, opened the Pet Cemetery in 1979 as a part time business venture, allowing burials in his one and a third acre back garden on Tuddenham road.
Bereaved pet lovers arrived in droves with dead cats, dogs and budgerigars, paying up to around £900 each to ensure their animals would be well cared for in the afterlife.
Over two decades, 900 pets have been laid to rest in the Chittocks' garden, almost all of which were cats and dogs.
Some owners have returned more than once, lying several generations of the same family side by side.
One lady from Ipswich buried 24 cats over the years and another woman from Clacton, who received an OBE for her services to animals, brought 20 dogs for interment.
Only two animals have been buried at the site in the past two years. Pet owners will now have to look elsewhere if they do not wish their deceased pets to be collected along with their rubbish.
Mr Chittock did investigate the possibility of buying extra land, next to his garden, from Ipswich School some years ago but he could not doo , he said, the school would not sell.
Those who have animals buried at the cemetery will still be free to visit the graves, Mr Chittock said.
He added: "It isn't a case of closing the cemetery. We just aren't taking any more burials. We simply haven't got any more room."
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