Pet Cemetery in Baguio

The City of Baguio is an urbanized city on the Cordillera mountain in the middle of the island of Luzon, in the Philippines. Baguio City was established by the Americans in 1900. 

The city is at an altitude of 1600 meters or approximately a mile-high. Baguio, 5100 feet above sea level has its cool mountain weather throughout the year but it gets especially cold on the months of December, January and February. For a lot of Filipinos, Baguio is known as the summer capital of the Philippines. It is also known as the City of Pines because of its many pine trees that dots throughout the mountain region.

Igorots are the mountain people that live within the Cordillera region. They are easy to spot wearing the native “bahag” made of traditional weave materials and are mostly wearing the towering head gear.

Aside from the usual Burnham Park, Wright Park, The Mansion, Session Road, Mines View Park, another attraction worth visiting is the Animal Cemetery inside Camp John Hay.

Camp John Hay is the former Rest and Recreation (R&R) facility for American military personnel during the American occupation in early 1900, and was heavily used when both the US Naval Base in Subic and US Air force base in Clark was still operational up until 1991.

The Camp, after the American military left in the 90’s became a tourist attraction, with its hotels, club houses, golf course, horseback riding, restaurant, wide-open parks, and camp sites. The latest addition is the Tree-Top Adventure where you can try rappelling, zip line, and the open type cable car or a ski-lift around the big and old pine trees of Baguio.

One of the unique attractions inside the camp is the animal cemetery. It comes in different names such as the Cemetery of Negativism. Cemetery of Negativism is a graveyard for negative thoughts. 

It is also called as the Lost Cemetery. Inside, you will see rows of markers for the dearly departed creatures.

Unlike the Pet Sematary, a 1983 horror novel by Stephen King, which was eventually made into a film in 1989, this Pet Cemetery in Baguio doesn’t elicit goose bumps.

Famous animal personalities who have since called this cemetery as their second home are buried 6 feet under since the 1900. 

This final resting place includes luminaries such as Mr Wright, Mr Shakit, Mr Foregot and Mr. Lettuce, to name a few. 

Make sure you read their short-lived life seen thru their head stones.