Please note: To avoid an unpleasant experience and conserve limited personal resources, we are not offering any services while we reclaim the cemetery, which may take several years if successful.

The Narrows Pet Cemetery is Ohio's oldest remaining pet cemetery, established in 1926, with over 14,000 buried, including pet and human remains.  The cemetery was lost over several decades to debt, drug activity, and health code violations, followed by multiple foreclosures and bankruptcy filings, and is now heavily overgrown.  The primary house, kennel, foot bridge, and multiple neighboring structures were demolished due to condition.  Please see the site development plan below for more about the land situation, which contains information required to be disclosed by Ohio case law before selling and buying real estate within the pet cemetery.  Note 6340 Frederick Pike, Dayton, Ohio 45414, is landlocked within the pet cemetery, which includes only part of a house and a number of other zoning, legal, utility, and other issues.

In 2001 the cemetery foreclosed for the second time, selling for $50,000 with primary house and kennel, which were then demolished.  20 years later, in 2021, after again running out of resources, the cemetery, including 18 remaining acres, 6 of which are headstones (the other 12 acres can legally be developed with road and private river frontage) was sold for $39,770 ($2,200 per acre) to Benjamin T. Thrasher, MBA and Environmental Engineer, and Tessa R. Thrasher, Registered Veterinary Technician, already living next to the cemetery, although having no pets buried within, or prior financial interest beyond being owed shared driveway maintenance.  In 2022 the State of Ohio and IRS determined the proposed effort to reclaim the cemetery with the help of animals, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charity, providing sales and income tax exemptions for the reclamation effort (but by law not the property itself).  This means your donations are tax deductible and go a little further.  Unlike pure human cemeteries, pet cemeteries (and human cemeteries which bury some pets per a certified letter from the State of Ohio) must pay property taxes and get no income from tax dollars when they fail.  Combine higher expenses with general expectation of lower cost services for pets for the same or higher level of service as human cemeteries (as pet cemeteries are typically expected to also include services offered by funeral homes, otherwise not part of cemeteries), pet cemeteries tend to struggle financially.  Most pet cemeteries in operation today still do not charge a significant amount to cover long term maintenance.  $50 (the state minimum charge required) now covers about a year of general maintenance and property taxes for a single plot; while interest rates on the state bonds the money is expected to be in don't even keep up with rising costs.  Given lack of government assistance for pet cemeteries, in order to survive long term a more sustainable approach, higher prices than human cemeteries, and stricter management of resources are all required.  Again, there are no tax dollars to fall on for pet cemeteries per Ohio law.

Please expect reclamation to take years before any services may again be offered, and expect management to be very different going forward.  The Narrows Pet Cemetery is working toward getting the help of animals that see the overgrowth as a buffet.  Running the cemetery as a farm also allows some additional tax breaks and minor side income, although it adds a lot of costs, work, and responsibility.  Since this is not a government funded cemetery, we are asking for your voluntary donations to help. 

In order to clean up the cemetery, the groundskeeping animals need new fencing, shelter, food, clean water, veterinary care, and an above average security system, given the area and activity certain fiction media has unfortunately also brought to pet cemeteries in general.  The acres of cemetery also needs new equipment, new facilities, landscaping, and a new driveway, which may involve a few years in court.  Everything is needed to run both a farm and a cemetery.  This means a higher start up cost with the goal of a unique farm style experience with animals.  Modern technological solutions are being incorporated, especially those which mean safer handling of remains, higher security, and better accountability to the customer.  Standards will be set higher going forward.  We will not allow installation of new concrete, paver, or steel headstones, and encourage owners of such headstones to contact us to upgrade before they have disintegrated beyond recognition.  We aim to make the Narrows Pet Cemetery a nice place again before making any sales/promises ourselves.  Please consider donating to help reclaim the Narrows Pet Cemetery as a cemetery for animals maintained by animals.

Shared Driveway Issues

Shared driveway issues have contributed to multiple vehicle collisions, including at least one human fatality, as well as ongoing legal and financial issues spanning multiple properties.  Previous owners of most of the property along the shared driveway still owe debt to a number of others, including the State of Ohio and IRS (given mail we still get here and public court records).  To help end shared driveway issues, Butler Township Zoning has regulations which eventually make the landlocked properties worthless at the end of legal use to anyone but a neighbor who has road access.  In general shared driveway agreements may work initially, however they fail more often than they work.  In our experience with all five other lot owners over our time here since 2014, not one of them has contributed their agreed share as recorded with Montgomery County, even as the only legal access to their property.  Also in our time here, two owners of 6340 Frederick Pike, Dayton, Ohio, have carelessly dumped the bulk of their trash on cemetery property for years.  Butler Township has placed unpaid trash collection liens on 6340 Frederick Pike for the most recent two owners of 6340 Frederick Pike, which is then combined with unpaid tax liens.  To help protect the cemetery from continuing to be a community dump site, of which neighbors have stolen and vandalized cemetery property in retaliation for us returning a large pile of trash, we are preparing for additional foreclosures, which puts visual progress on hold to preserve resources.  Please understand cemetery reclamation efforts are personally funded, where we have limited resources and can't throw time and money at everything all at once, while working full time to fund such.  Such an approach would continue to repeat history of foreclosures and bankruptcies.

If you are thinking of buying property within the cemetery, please don't.  Shortly after the last two owners acquired 6340 Frederick Pike in 2020 and 2023, they both stopped paying property taxes and other debts.  Similar situations have happened with all four properties on the shared driveway since at least the 1990s, before which records are hard to find.  If you want to visit the landlocked properties, know the property lines before you visit; vehicles will be towed without further warning.  If you can't make it up the hill because of snow or ice and leave your car at the bottom of the driveway, it will be towed.  We've dealt with neighbors blocking access to our own property because they couldn't make it up the driveway, while they also didn't contribute to driveway maintenance and have overdone their welcome as previously mentioned.  Given it's been a theme here along the shared driveway since at least the 1990s, expect foreclosure.  While normally property values go up, property dollar values here are all less than they were in the 1990s.  This website exists now primarily to warn potential buyers from again buying worthless property, and warn about buying properties with shared driveways in general.  Shared driveways are like communism; it doesn't actually work, and they both result in war and decreased property values.  The shared portion of the driveway is due to be replaced, estimated to cost $130,000, which is to be split equally (three ways) per recorded agreement; this is in addition to regular maintenance costs already owed to us.  If unpaid, a lien will be placed and foreclosed.

Per Ohio case law the sellers of these properties must disclose all the information mentioned on this webpage prior to closing.  No Ohio Revised Code exemption exempts a seller from having to disclose such issues when known.  You not knowing about past unpaid driveway maintenance, that you can't legally build anything here, that 6340 doesn't even include a whole house, which legally can't be finished, there's no trash service, no mail service, and no gas service, is between you and the seller.  Per zoning, once a landlocked use ends, that is it.  It's not our fault if you choose to buy a property with no road frontage.  We can provide evidence of prior owners knowing about dozens of issues to help you sue them for what you owe us, while we sue you into foreclosure; that's the reality of shared driveways.  Ask Butler Township Police and Zoning how these shared driveway situations typically end around here.  Search the internet for the amount of lawsuits over shared driveways in general.  Operating with these issues being in the middle of the property would not be a good experience for customers, as it's been.  We will therefore not operate until the legal/zoning issues, which also resulted from past poor financial decisions, are resolved.  This means conserving resources to avoid another foreclosure for the cemetery.  We refuse to accumulate debt, which is really easy to do taking on lawsuits while rebuilding a business.  For now our main goal is protecting the cemetery from further damage, which means lots of cameras, signs, calling police, questioning, and prosecuting those who do not respect the cemetery.

Visit

The Narrows Pet Cemetery

6350 Frederick Pike 

Butler Township, Montgomery County, Ohio

Due to ongoing theft, vandalism, poaching, drug activity, and dumping issues, there is no sign by the road marking the cemetery entrance.  Even our address sign was recently stolen.  Putting up signage to advertise our location also attracts more crime.

Rules:

1. Currently open for visitation 7 days per week, sunrise to sunset.  Subject to closure weekdays once fenced for groundskeeping.  Closed if snow and/or ice are on the driveway.  Vehicles with low clearance are subject to damage due to driveway issues.

2. The only parking is up the driveway narrow in the grass in front of the Narrows Pet Cemetery sign; if you are not parked here, are not lawfully and respectfully visiting the cemetery, or left a vehicle after sunset, your vehicle may be towed.  To retrieve towed vehicles, call Sandy's Towing at 1-800-762-4357.

3. If there's a fence, guard rail, gate, rope, or log blocking entry, the area is closed.  Rope and fencing may be electrified with 10,000 volts (for agriculture purposes).  Animals are present who spit, bite, kick, ram, and stomp trespassers to death.

4. Dogs are welcome if kept on leash, quiet, and away from livestock.  It is your responsibility to control your dog, especially as a guest on our property, where it is our responsibility to protect our flock.  Montgomery County Animal Resource Center and Butler Township Police prosecute for failure to control animals.

5. Do not feed livestock, except grass from on site, not any other plants.  Foreign foods may choke or poison livestock.

6. No littering or dumping of any kind, including pets (which resulted in a former owner being arrested, fined, and not allowed to return for her allowing).  Temporary memorial items are welcome, subject to cleanup at any time for safety and cleanliness.

7. No unrelated business, hunting, fishing, swimming, going on ice, or excessive noise, including discharging a firearm within 300 feet per Ohio law.  This is a privately owned cemetery, not a public park.

8. Please be respectful.  Animals, remains, headstones, structures, plots, land, and all adjacent properties, including river frontage, are all privately owned.  Anyone in violation of these rules, and anyone who has anything to do with landlocked properties, including 6340 Frederick Pike, going beyond the driveway right of way or leaving anything in the right of way without permission, is trespassing on private property.

9. By entering and remaining, you agree to video and audio surveillance.

10. Beware of rough terrain, collapsed graves, guard animals, electric fencing, barbed wire, rusty metal, equipment, cliffs, concealed surveillance, and typical hazards associated with farms and 100 year old cemeteries.

We do not charge a fee for the recreational activity of visiting this pet cemetery in which the general public is invited to participate, exempting liability "to keep the premises safe for entry or use" under ORC § 1533.181.

"WARNING: Under Ohio law, there is no liability for an injury to or death of a participant in an agritourism activity conducted at this agritourism location if that injury or death results from the inherent risks of that agritourism activity. Inherent risks of agritourism activities include, but are not limited to, the risk of injury inherent to land, equipment, and animals as well as the potential for you as a participant to act in a negligent manner that may contribute to your injury or death. You are assuming the risk of participating in this agritourism activity." ORC § 901.80

The cemetery and farm are managed by Narrows Farm LLC and Narrows Farm and Pet Cemetery, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation.