Olivia Allen-Price from KQED (thanks to Bob P.)
Tombstones at the Presidio of San Francisco Pet Cemetery in San Francisco on Oct. 16, 2024. (Martin do Nascimento/KQED)
View the full episode transcript.
San Francisco has long been a tough place to be dead. For the past hundred years, burying the dead within San Francisco city limits has been banned.
One exception to this rule was the Presidio Pet Cemetery — a paradise where the pets of military families were laid to rest for 52 years.
Directly beneath the Presidio Parkway overpass, a small plot of land in the Presidio holds the remains of over 400 beloved pets. While the cemetery doesn’t have the tidy rows you might imagine, it’s still beautiful. It’s raw and overgrown, with big bushes of white and magenta flowers and charming wooden grave markers peeking out of the greenery. The cemetery is backdropped with a picturesque view of the Golden Gate Bridge.