Secord Pet Cemetery – The final resting place of our beloved pets

April 2021

While pet cemeteries are no where near as common as cemeteries for humans, they do exist. The first one in Canada was opened in King Township, north of Toronto, Ontario. While it had its last burial around 1975, and has been largely abandoned for over four decades, it’s now owned by the Town of Aurora, who have plans to restore it and make it publicly accessible once again.

Another pet cemetery in southern Ontario exists on the property once owned by the late Dr. Alan Secord, a well known Toronto veterinarian. Established in 1949 near Goodwood, Ontario, some 16 years after the Aurora pet cemetery, the Secord Pet Cemetery is much larger, containing the graves of around 2000 cats and dogs. Many of the pets resting in the cemetery were the family pets from Secord’s veterinary practice.

In establishing the cemetery, Dr. Secord was quoted as saying, “If there were no animals in heaven; it wouldn’t be heaven; would it?”

The biggest monument in the cemetery is for a dog named Bambii; a stone column with a brass sculpture on top.

The property is now owned by the Toronto and Region Conservation, who purchased the land from Dr. Secord’s estate in 1997.

Secord Pet Cemetery can be found where Secord Road comes to a dead-end, west of Concession 3, a little south of the Village of Goodwood. When you come to the dead-end, the entrance to a small parking lot is just to the right. The cemetery is a very short walk down the footpath from the parking lot.

It hasn’t been maintained in years and can get quite overgrown in the summer.

On another topic, Goodwood has also achieved some fame as one of the filming locations for the TV show Schitt’s Creek, Starring Eugene Levy, his son Dan Levy, and Catherine O’Hara.

Sources: Pet cemetery near Goodwood contains the graves of some 2;000 animals; Dr. Alan Secord of Toronto; who started the cemetery; says: If there were no animals in heaven; it wouldn’t be heaven; would it? : Digital Archive : Toronto Public Library, Oak Ridges Trail Association :: Uxbridge – Secord Forest (Conc. 3), ORMLT spring nsltr.PDF (oakridgesmoraine.org), About Secord Pond, Fenton & White Explore The Past – Fenton & White (wordpress.com), https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/goodwood-schitts-creek-tourism-1.5192063.