Hi all

Many thanks to all our new signers as wwell as our current supporters.

Please continue to share the petition even if you have already done so - statistics show people need to see a petition more than once before signing.

As always you can email us at: cemeteries4all@yahoo.com

For today's update we'd like to share and article in the Scotsman newspaper with a vote on if dogs should be banned (with excemptions) from Edinburgh's 43 council run cemeteries - please note they did not speak to us at all and it is a very one sided report. Please vote if you can.

The article:  https://www.scotsman.com/news/environment/why-council-will-vote-on-a-ban-dogs-from-all-edinburgh-cemeteries-4679251 

If you don't know our petition please read out updates for full detaols including articles on the health and wellbeing benefits of visiting cemeteries,  modern respectful use of cemetries statistics at the start of all this.

A shortish summary of what we are about: we are against a ban (with excemptions) as we feel it will disadvantage people (including mourners) and will achieve nothing.

We believe the majority of dog "owners" adhere to current rules (which address the issues mentioned by the other petition) and they also provide a much needed footfall which provides a sense of safety and helps deter anti-social behaviour such as IV drug use, vandalism etc.

People without dogs visit cemeteries for many reasons, the key being to visit deceased loved ones with other reasons including a walk in a place of quiet solace, reflection and contemplation, visting ancestral or historical reasons as well as others we have forgotten to mention. We don't feel eople with dogs should be excluded from these recognised health and wellbeing benefits because they have a well behaved dog with them.

We don't feel that people who do not adhere to current rules will not really adhere to a ban so it would effectively just cause possible for those who have done nothing wrong.

Furthermore, we have concerns relating to excemptions for mourners with dogs. How will they prove they are a mourner? Will their grief be intruded upon in order to prove they are worthy of being there? If not how would a ban be enforced? If it weren't to be enforced what would the point of doing it be?

In relation to enforcement how would this be done? I doubt the council has the staff or money to enforce it.

We do acknowledge there are problematic behaviours and in essence want the same thing as the other petition  we just believe issues could be managed in a different way without negatively affecting mourners and other people who have done nothing wrong. 

We also believe there are many other issues in cemeteries which also need addressed and perhaps more so than a minority of people with dogs - as mentioned drug use is a problem in some cemeteries and there are issues with used needles and other materials being left, in some there are issues in relation to human poo.

Remember there are 43 cemeteries in Edinburgh under council care and we are omly hearing about one with issues with dogs.

We believe that the current rules should stay but that there needs to be more education on the current rules as well as the ethos and use of cemetries in general