Friday 23 April 2010

More about coon dogs

The Key Underwood Coon Dog Memorial Graveyard is a cemetery located in rural Colbert County, Alabama, USA reserved specifically for the burial of coon dogs. Key Underwood established the cemetery on Labour Day 1937 by burying his coon dog, Troop. Underwood chose the spot as it was previously a popular hunting camp. Today more than 185 dogs are buried at the cemetery.
Dogs must meet three requirements to qualify for burial at the cemetery:
1. the owner must claim that his pet is an authentic coon dog,
2. a witness must declare that the deceased is a coon dog,
3. a member of the local coon hunters' organisation must be allowed to view the coonhound and declare it to be a coon dog.

When asked why he didn’t allow other kinds of dogs to be buried at the coon dog cemetery, Underwood replied: “You must not know much about coon hunters and their dogs, if you think we would contaminate this burial place with poodles and lap dogs.”

2 comments:

Whispering Walls said...

No racoons either?

Unknown said...

I guess Southerners are particular about their hunting dogs.