Its name may translate as 'Cemetery of Dogs' but every kind of creature - feathered, clawed and pawed - has its final resting place in Le Cimetière des Chiens.

Lying just outside Paris in the suburb of Asnières-sur-Seine, it is thought to be the world's oldest public pet cemetery.

Many of its inhabitants are indeed man's best friend, but it is also home to graves belonging to cats, rabbits, hamsters, mice, birds and fish, not to mention a racehorse and a lion.

However, its most well known occupants are of the canine variety, including movie star Rin Tin Tin.

The Cimetière des Chiens opened in 1899, necessitated by a law passed the previous year declaring that pets had to be correctly buried.

The law, which was passed by the Paris city government, declared that dead pets could no longer just be tossed out with the trash or dumped in the Seine.

Instead, they had to be buried in hygienic graves at least 100 metres from the nearest dwelling.

Following this law change, attorney Georges Harmois and journalist Marguerite Durand came up with the idea of a "cemetery for dogs and other domestic animals".

Digging first began in June, 1899 and the new cemetery opened for business that summer.

Over the years countless animals have been buried there; as of 1958 they numbered 40,000 and this has continued to increase.

In fact, amongst the graves there is one dedicated to the 40,000th animal to be laid to rest.

The animal in question was a stray dog that was run over by a car near the cemetery gates in 1958.

At the entrance to the cemetery is a large monument dedicated to Barry, the world's most famous St. Bernard.

Barry, who lived from 1800-1814, was credited with saving 41 human lives.

The monument to him was erected in 1900, though Barry himself is not buried in the cemetery.

The heroic St. Bernard was handed over to a taxidermist and his stuffed body remains are still on display at the Natural History Museum of Bern, Switzerland.

One of the oldest graves in the cemetery belongs to 'Emma', who was born in 1889 and died on August 2, 1900.

Meanwhile, the most famous inhabitant is Rin Tin Tin, who starred in several Hollywood films of the 1920s.

Although he spent most of his life in the U.S. and died in Hollywood, he had originally been found in France so was returned to Paris to be buried.

Though the cemetery is given over to the dead, there are also plenty of living animals who make their homes amongst the gravestones.

The cemetery is home to a large colony of cats that are regularly fed by visiting animal lovers.

MUST CREDIT PHOTOS BY: Sipa Press / Rex Features