Grave dogs at Belmont Cemetery

WHILE SOME PERSONS complain about damage done to flowers and growing foliage on the graves of their loved ones at some cemeteries, at the Belmont cemetery the complaint is about dogs digging holes in the soil of fresh graves.

And Ishmael Richards, the main grave digger at that cemetery told SEARCHLIGHT that he has to be constantly repairing the damage done to the surface of graves.

In full throated local vernacular, the grave digger of several decades standing identified two dogs as the main culprits, “a black hairy skin dog, and a brown one.” And while he knows who is the owner of the black dog, he has no idea who owns the other dog he has fingered.

“Man this going on for a long time but e get worse now,” and while he has had to do repairs on a few graves, it seems as though the dogs have become particularly fond of the resting place of a particular senior citizen who was laid to rest earlier this year.

Persons would call and alert Ishmael about disturbance to the soft soil on graves and he has made repeated trips to the cemetery to effect repairs.

“ Me na know way e be dem ah look fa,” Ismael remarked.

It seemed the dogs, having been prevented from entering the cemetery from the direction of the Belmont Government School due to it having been fenced, found another route to get into the cemetery. Ishmael is quick with the reassurance that the bodies of deceased persons are not at risk, as the

dogs get only as far as about a foot down, but he feels he “can’t go remedy dog work all de time.” However, the main grave digger is proud of his work and wants relatives to have the peace of mind that the graves of their loved ones are intact, therefore he continues to effect necessary repairs to the soil atop disturbed graves.

The Belmont cemetery falls within the responsibility of the Calliaqua Town Board and Ishmael says he intends to draw the on-going challenge to their attention so they could at least “ask the owners to tie dey dogs,” because “that is all they could do.”