Piles of remains go unburied from Orange County animal cremation facility

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — An Orange County animal cremation and burial facility has promised to clean up property littered with animal remains that have gone unburied for months.

Debbie Mulrine, the owner of Greenbrier Memory Gardens in Apopka, said the remains in question were from stray animals and animals from families that didn’t want the remains back.

She did not realize the remains, which were supposed to be spread out and covered with dirt, had been collecting for about four months.

“OK, that’s a little bit more than what I expected,” she said when Channel 9 reporter Cuthbert Langley showed her a picture of the site.

The remains had been deposited on private land owned by an employee of the facility, Mulrine said.

That employee, Kenneth Grimm, admitted he hadn’t disposed of the remains as he should have.

“We’ve been pretty busy,” he said. “It’s my fault. I’ve slacked on getting it covered up sooner.”

Mulrine and Grimm estimated that it has been at least four months since the remains were buried appropriately.

Because the pet remains were cremated, the Orange County Department of Health said they are considered garbage, not biomedical waste.

The Department of Environmental Protection said the situation was unusual and that it was checking if the unburied remains constituted any sort of violation.

Cox Media Group