UTM forensic students help prepare Oakville pet cemetery for relocation

U of T Mississauga’s forensic anthropology students have been offered an unusual opportunity to gain hands-on experience.

For the next 18 months, 60 undergraduate and graduate students will help dig up and catalogue animal remains at the Oakville and Milton Humane Society (OMHS) pet cemetery.

“We have had students working cadaver dogs, developing or adjusting fingerprinting techniques, analyzing bullet trajectories, but nothing quite like this cemetery,” says Grace Gregory-Alcock, the first-year PhD student supervising the excavation. “It’s one of the largest projects the field school course has ever undertaken.”

The task includes more than 500 graves at a cemetery that was active from 1953 to 1991.       

“When the OMHS determined that they needed more space and wanted to move, they reached out to (UTM Director of the Forensic Science Tracy Rogers) to ascertain what their obligations and options were for the cemetery,” says Gregory-Alcock. “When they found out what could happen to the cemetery if it were left – essentially anything, as it is not protected under any laws – they did not want that, so they asked for her help in recovering the remains and preserving them.”

The work is a class component for those enrolled in UTM’s forensic anthropology field school (ANT306) and advanced bioarcheology (ANT441), which teaches methods of analysis, theoretical issues, and the excavation, documentation and interpretation of a burial.

Gregory-Alcock says the experience will help students develop skills in documentation as they fill in official forms to document each grave; communications, to explain what they are seeing in the soil and to indicate what they need from their partner or teaching assistant; excavation as they trowel and remove soil, and identify changes in the soil texture/content; and recovery skills, such as how to properly remove the remains from the ground, all at once or systematically.

“It’s a unique opportunity to develop practical skills, while helping them understand why care and consideration are important to the families who love them,” said Rogers, who is also a consultant to the Ontario Forensic Pathology Service, in a news release.

The OMHS, a non-profit organization dedicated to the protection and well-being of animals in the Oakville and Milton communities, has been contacting former owners to inform them of the cemetery relocation.

"We are dedicated to providing the utmost care of these beloved pets and are grateful for the expertise that Dr. Rogers and her team bring to this important project,” said OMHS Executive Director Jeff Vallentin in a release.  

Each lot, which contain remains varying in size from small family pets to a racehorse named St. Ina, will be documented with photos and notes and be housed in a secure facility at the current OMHS location until a new location can be obtained.