A Barrister's Blog

Many ancient civilisations had no issues with the burial of pets with their owners. This was (arguably) not the case in NSW up until 1 September 2025.

I probably shouldn’t have been surprised to discover that there are some complicated laws and regulations which govern burials and cremations in NSW. It’s not that difficult to imagine that burial and public health were important issues in the early days of the NSW colony, particularly when the average life expectancy was around 50.

In more recent times, burial and cremation is regulated by the Cemeteries and Crematoria Act (2013). The principal concept at the heart of that Act is the “internment right”. Without exploring the detail of the grant (including renewals and re-use), content and transfer of internment rights (perhaps there’s another blog post brewing), an interment right relates to the interment of “human remains”

Human remains means “bodily remains” (also a defined term) which means “means the whole or any part of the body of a person who has died (whatever its physical state may be) but does not include the whole or any part of a body that has been cremated.”

Apart from interment rights, Reg 90 Public Health Regulation 2022 deals with the burial of a body in a coffin and the upper surface of the coffin must be not less than 900mm below the surface soil level. Body is also a defined term for the purpose of that regulation and it means “means the body of a dead person, but does not include the cremated remains of the person“.

So far, there’s nothing about burial of animals, apart from the remarkably similar information which appears in the fact sheets published by the Department of Primary Industries and also by Wildcare Australia. Basically, licensed landfill, burial, composting and burning are the preferred methods. Knackeries are another option for larger animals (although transporting the carcass might be an issue). Wildcare has some helpful tips on “how do I know it’s dead?”. I don’t think I will be checking for reptilian heartbeats or respiration any time soon.

The point of all of this is there is nothing which says anything about burying animal remains in human cemeteries. There are pet cemeteries and apparently for many years some cemetery operators turned a blind eye to be requests for pets to be buried with their owners. That was until 1 September 2025 when an amendment proposed by the Animal Justice Party saw the insertion of s69A into the Cemeteries and Crematoria Act. That section provides: “To avoid doubt, this Act permits the placement and burial of animal remains in an interment site to the extent to which the placement and burial is not inconsistent with another Act or law.”

So, now it’s legal if you want Fido or Toto (or whatever your favourite pet’s name was) to be buried with you. Another first world problem solved.

Creative commons acknowledgement for the photograph.