A friend of mine came across this sight wandering the hills just atop Tannery Bay, right at the edge on top of a hill, a most unusual place to partially bury any animal. It was covered with just a bit of Earth in the middle and remains of a black plastic rubbish bags where still visible. We didn't touch anything, of course.

Did somebody bury their dog (about 1 metre long) in a very shallow hole where it would get exposed soon? Is this common practice on Lamma?

My worried friend was wondering what animal it was? Most likely a dog?

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This is the traditional way to make dog jerky

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wooooooooooooooooh

I came across the same remains a couple of weeks ago - my dog sniffed it out. At that time only the jaw was sticking up out of the ground, but the rest has gradually emerged.

I agree it's an odd place to bury a dog, but dog it presumably is - no other large carnivores on Lamma? Quite a big dog too judging by the size of the skull - whoever carried it to this site must have been fairly strong. Unless, of course, they killed the dog there. The teeth look/ed in good shape - so probably a fairly young animal.

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Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.

Twice, when I was new to Lamma, I heard what I was certain was someone killing a dog, by the sound the dog made. I won't go into details. Neither time could I be certain exactly which house the sound was coming from. I have often wondered if anyone here eats dogs. If this dog carcass appeared to have been big, could it have been the disposed remains after such an act? Of course it is illegal to kill dogs for food here, so maybe that would explain why the carcass was buried in such an unusual place.

The skeleton looks intact, so probably not killed for food and then broken up?
Maybe just a pet who died and the owner didn't want to spend cash to dispose of it?

Anyway, a secretive pet burial like this looks less gruesome to me than the fresh human grave I came across on a hillside recently, with an entire roasted pig's head in front of it. The feral dogs or even our feral pigs in that area could have had a field day with it as it lay there for at least several days before the grave's flowers and decorations were removed. This was a major, formal, traditional, Taoist (?) hillside burial of an indigenous villager.

We non-indigenous residents will have to do with a little niche for our ashes in the "Lamma Garden of Remembrance" Columbarium up at the Youth Hostel, but only after at least 7 years of residency on Lamma. My future resting place, I hope:
"Here lies Lamma-Gung, he has finally shut up!"

Anyway, what happens to dead, larger pets on Lamma?
Could somebody with experience or from our animal charities explain the options, please?

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We've buried our deceased cats, dogs, hamsters, budgerigars. Dug a fairly deep hole for the dog. Put a few rocks on the top to discourage scavengers and nosy photographers.

Of course nothing wrong with burying a dead pet. The odd thing with this one is it's a slightly tricky five minutes plus from the nearest concrete path, and hard stony ground - a crap place to bury a big dog, never mind the hassle of carrying it there. And to get there, whoever it was would have walked through a wooded area with deep, soft soil - an ideal place. I should know as I once buried our cat there.

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Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.

The woman who buried this dog was distraught, to say the least, and dug the grave using only her bare hands. I've now relocated him to a more appropriate and deeper site. It was all very distressing. But thanks for pointing this out and even more thanks to the two good friends who helped me, because I couldn't have done it without them.

RIP Lewis

That was nice of you.

My dear friend who alerted me to this agrees with Nancy and so do I. She writes:

"It was a heroic deed to pick it up and rebury it. There are some very good folk on Lamma."

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Well done John (et al). Sorry to hear it is/was Lewis. And that explains why Sam was so interested - he always remembers his mates!

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Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.