We have now reached over 500 signatures!

Thank you very very much to all of those that have signed, shared and donated - you are wonderful!

Let's keep going and see how many more signatures we can get to protect those who respectfully, responsibly and within current rules use the cemetrey with their dogs and do not want to be penalised and excluded based on a minority of dogs owners who do not do this.

We want to protect mourners who should not have to expose their grief to a stranger; vunerable people who feel safer in the cemetery over the wider world; people with health issues that use the cemetrey for its unique beauty when they cannot walk far and many others who may use a cemetery with their dog.

In the spirit of thanking people - we'd also like to thank the other petition for giving a day's update for publicity to us - Misinformation Monday! 

Whilst we are hurt by some of their comments, fevour and interpretations of what we have written we're getting used to it and as the sayings go "there is no such thing as bad publicity" and "all publicity is good publicity". 

Indeed, we often see a little upturn in signers after such posts or discussions on nextdoor.

We have answered many of these points before in updates which you can see on our petition so we'll not go over them again. For other points we have not specifically answered you can read our updates and see for yourself what we have written and hopefully you will take it with the deeply concerned and heartfelt intention it was written with.

They have also included links to most (if not all, we lost track) of what they have said so that people can read what was actually written by us rather than selected quotes - this is brilliant as people will be able to see not only the whole written piece but also the context with which it was written which means a lot in terms of interpretation of and intention behind the words. 

As stated we will always tell the truth as we have it and will not lie, mislead or make accusations against anyone. We are sure everyone here can understand the difference between not liking what somone has written and responding in a certain manner compared to that somone writing lies, misinformation or indeed information that was correct at the time of writing but has changed since due to the point they were addressing being changed. If you choose to believe what we write then thank you but if you do not we are sorry to hear that but that is your choice to make.

As stated before we are actually mourners and all our posts are written with a heartfelt passion for our loved ones, us, other like us and for all those who use cemetries with their dogs respectfully, responsibly and within current rules. 

For those who read the other petition's post re emotional support dogs, no they are not trained in assistance tasks as they do not need to be - what's the point in them being able to pick up something you have dropped or tell you if someone is going to have a seizure when you need a companion who gives you unconditional love, makes you feel safe and provides you with cuddles when you need them etc - they do provide other emotional support factors but these are not assistance tasks as would be done by an assistance dog. They are, however, often trained in normal dog training ways (or else they wouldn't be much use as a support dog) and they are sometimes prescribed by health professionals.

Indeed, an emotional support dog can make the difference between someone terrified to leave their house alone and experiencing panic attacks to being able to go out their house, have a job and even have some semblance of a social life - we personally see this as just as important as assistance dogs as they can give a person their life back.

They are not as well known in this country (although this is changing) as they are in others, such as, America. As a result some health professionals may not prescribe them as they don't know about them or people may not know to ask for such a prescription but use their dog in this manner anyway. This does not mean they are not important or valid, the fact they can be prescribed shows how important they can be to help people.

Further, they are not recognised in legislation but this doesn't mean when asking for a rule/law change that one couldn't ask for an excemption for emotional support dogs - mourners with dogs aren't recognised by any legislation (as far as we know) yet an excemption has been asked for them.

Whilst an excemption for mourners may seem understandable given that we are talking about a cemetery not all cemeteries who ban dogs (with or without excemptions) will allow them with mourners this is a change to the norm and a request by the petitioners of the other petition.

Why not also change the norm re emotional support dogs who are essential to the people that have them - seems an understandable excemption to us if people need them there should be an excemption for them why didn't the other petition ask for this? They state they cannot make the decisions only ask for their rule/law change but they have asked for an excemption for mourners (whose dogs are unlikely to be trained to assistance dog level either) why not for emotional support animals?

As a final point as stated many times now and acknowledged by the other petition - we have dyslexia and at times may have to edit posts (as quickly as we can) after publishing them as we spot mistakes not previously spotted. We also find it difficult to write short concise pieces of writing. We are aware of software available for dyslexics having studied 2 degrees, however, this is expensive and the free versions are often bamboozled by us - we do try to write well amd can take hours to write a post but we will have slips ups. We personally believe if you can understand the message we are trying to convey that's the most important thing. We apologise if this inconveniences or annoys anyone.