As a matter of fact, we did find a pet dog burial from the 1950s at 
the urban farmstead at the 1836-and-now-restored Block family house 
at Historic Washington State Park in 1983.  Oft-presented in slide 
shows but not yet formally published, said burial will be in my 
chapter in a forthcoming book edited by Carl Carlson-Drexler and 
David Markus on diversity in the historical archeology of Arkansas.

To quote myself, "One might also note the discovery of the sad 
evidence of a buried pet, an intact skeleton of a dog, on the site of 
the former kitchen ell and thus dating after about 1950, with a 
chicken bone in its larynx (Figure 3, dog skeleton).  Unlike a 
complete turkey carcass that was dumped into a hastily dug shallow 
hole outside the perimeter of the kitchen (one does not eat poultry 
that has died of an uncertain cause, explained informants), this dog 
was carefully laid down in a grave on its right side, fore and hind 
legs extended comfortably at right angles to the spine, its head a 
little higher than the rest of the body. Not incidentally, the 
remains were laid out with the head and back in perfect alignment 
with the Block House, thus ultimately with the Southwest Trail to 
which the town plat oriented.  It was an act of the 1950s, yet deeply 
affected by the spatial framework of Washington established in 
1824.  That framework provided a perhaps comforting moment of 
regularity and routine a century and a quarter after the surveyor 
laid down his tools."



  At 10:59 PM 1/13/2013, you wrote:
>Hi there, I was wondering if anyone can provide me with some 
>references to published material (rather than grey literature I 
>can't get access to) regarding pet burials, particularly on 19th 
>century farmstead sites?  There doesn't seem to have been much 
>written on this.