‘Nobody knew about it’: Premature demolition disturbs pet cemetery in Fremont

A pet cemetery is disturbed during the demolition of the old Dodge County Humane Society. Residents and city council caught by surprise, but city administrator explains.

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‘Nobody knew about it’: Premature demolition disturbs Fremont pet cemetery

FREMONT, Neb. —

Fremont residents were caught by surprise when the old Dodge County Humane Society started to come down Monday.

“We started calling the mayor, city council and no. Nobody knew about it,” Rae Tuff, Fremont resident, said.

The city of Fremont acquired the property in December 2024 after a years-long lawsuit with DCHS. In 2019, the city filed to terminate the contract with DCHS and the organization sued citing wrongful termination. Fremont City Administrator Jody Sanders said in 2024 DCHS had undergone financial struggles, ultimately deciding to sell the building back to the city.

“We kind of came to a resolution of settling the contract,” Sanders said. “We would pay the appraised value of the property, but that would be like settling the dispute.”

The city acquired the facility for $350,000. After a walkthrough earlier this year, Sanders said the building had extensive structural issues along with a rodent infestation.

“They would strongly recommend that you take everything down to the studs essentially,” Sanders said.

The demolition costs $20,000 which falls below the $50,000 minimum required for city council approval. Instead, the city is able to move forward with demolition as long as it doesn’t take long than a year.

“This company was the least expensive, but they also told us that due to their workload, they wouldn’t be able to do anything with the building until November,” Sanders said.

The city agreed to that timeline, hoping to use the next several months to tell residents about the upcoming demolition. Sanders said the contractors moved ahead of schedule.

“It would have been splendid if we had been given a heads up,” Sanders said. “It caught council members off guard and the mayor as well as myself and the public works director.”

The Dodge County Humane Society did have a cemetery on property, mainly for pets. Sanders said the city will keep remains on site for now; however, some were disturbed today including Rae Tuff’s own pet.

“I’ve seen at least probably 20 pet coffins today in that one spot, and there was still flowers and memorial pieces,” Tuff said.

“We do understand that there are a couple cremated humans in that makeshift columbarium,” Sanders said. “We absolutely do want to be respectful.”

Sanders believed the contractors were digging to remove the entire foundation and did not intend to disturb the graves. The city does not currently have a plan in place for the remains. Once that is figure out, the city will issue a public notice through email, website and in the local paper.

After that public notice, you will have 30 days to claim your loved one. Those claims should be submitted to the city clerk.

Sanders told Omaha’s News Leader that the city plans to build another animal care facility on the property either for animal control or in partnership with another animal welfare nonprofit. However, she said due to other projects, those plans are further down the line.

“We have a five-year capital plan, and we had some money budgeted with the idea that we might be able to renovate the building next in this upcoming year budget, but what we had budgeted is not enough to build a new building,” Sanders said.

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