Article: News: Bury me next to my rats Last week, a survey revealed that bereavement counselling for pet owners has increased by 60 per cent. Does this prove, asks Olga Craig, that Britons now care more for their pets than they do for their relations?

IN his four years as manager of Claverhambury pet cemetery in east London, Ray Edgar has had several unusual requests. There was the 2 ft-high, heart-shaped headstone that he erected for Annabel, a much loved and sorely missed goldfish; the five German shepherds, all brothers, that their owners wanted laid to rest side by side; the cat for which the owner insisted upon a Latin inscription; and the horse that had to be winched into a specially enlarged plot.

Dean Wayland's query, however, was quite the most extraordinary.

"Dean already has four pet rats buried here," Mr Edgar explains, "and now, Little Heartbeat, his New Zealand Kune Kune piglet has died as well as another of his rats. He has ...

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