Chile’s pet cemeteries are beloved. But they raise environmental and health concerns.

Sergio Muena is nailing planks of wood together for a little memorial for his dog, Samantha, at a pet cemetery just north of the town of Arica, Chile. She died in mid-January from complications from Lyme disease.

“For all of the years she gave me, it’s the least I can do,” said Muena, whose family was on hand to help. “The idea is to make a little doghouse and maybe put some little plants around it and some lights.”

Muena said that Samantha used to swim like a sea lion, and she’d bury things in the ground — including even his cellphone. They were together for a decade.

“The truth is her death hurt me a lot. It still does. It’s like losing part of oneself,” Muena said, choking back tears. “She was part of our family.”

Samantha is buried alongside hundreds of other pets in the cemetery, which goes back at least a decade. Though pet cemeteries themselves in Chile began springing up after a Siberian Husky was buried in a park in March 1989 near the end of the [Augusto] Pinochet dictatorship.

There are roughly 12 million pets in Chile. But there are very few formal pet cemeteries and no government regulations about disposing of their bodies once they pass. A group of congressmen introduced legislation last year that would change that. But it’s moving slowly. 

The need is only growing, as are the number of pet cemeteries, according to Steffanie Zarzar, the founder of Planeta Amor, or Planet Love, an organization in Arica that helps find homes for stray animals. 

Zarzar, who has 18 adopted dogs herself, said that more and more people are living in apartments where there’s no space to bury pets.

“So, people seek out the informal cemeteries to give a dignified resting place for their pets, rather than throwing them away like lumps in the trash.”

But these informal pet cemeteries are also vulnerable to the elements, vultures or even development.

This Instagram video shows a section of the pet cemetery near Arica completely inundated with water after a nearby river flooded overnight on Feb. 8.

“I don’t know what to say. It’s sad,” said Natalia Nadia, a local resident who stared out over the scene of flooded gravesites. “This is totally unsanitary. We should not be breathing this. It smells bad and the color of the water is really off.”

Some pet owners have also turned to cremation.

Like Joselyn Andrade, who had her dog, Sky, cremated after she passed away a couple of years ago.

“I have her at home in an urn,” she said. “I’d rather have her there with me than occupying space someplace else.”

But cremation is expensive — anywhere from $50 to $250. 

So, for many, the informal pet cemeteries are the only option.