Animal owners who buried their pets at the Paradise Pet Cemetery thinking that it would be their final resting place are getting a rude awakening: the cemetery is being converted to condominiums.
Imtiaz Ahmed, the owner of the land on which the 57-year-old West Palm Beach, Fla., cemetery sits, is trying to get the word out through the local media that owners of pets buried on the land have a few months to remove their pets.
“They can just come and dig, absolutely,” Ahmed told the Palm Beach Post.
Ahmed said that when bought the five-acre lot in 2002, he was unaware that the cemetery was on it. He still owns the cemetery.
Unlike some other states, Florida does not require pet cemetery owners to get a permanent designation for the land and it’s up to individual counties in the state to regulate the cemeteries’ operations, according to the Palm Beach County Health Department.
Currently, there are about 200 animals buried on the property. Ahmed says he’s giving owners of buried pets three to six months to retrieve their animals before going forward with his plan to build 58 condo units on the land.