Pet Cremation Answers

Why shouldn’t I just use the pet crematorium that my vet suggests?

You place your pet’s life and their well being in the hands of your vet and that takes a huge amount of trust. You can say the same about your doctor, however they would not dream of “selling” you a funeral service following the death of a family member, yet most pet owners still trust their vet to arrange their pet’s cremation for them without question.

Your vet may make not profit from making the arrangements and use a small and caring pet crematorium that will give your pet a wonderful send off and the service you envisage, however unfortunately it is more likely that they won’t.

Most owners do not make their own enquiries before/after the death of their pet but use the pet cremation service that is sold to them by their vet. This would be fine if the selling of pet cremation services was regulated, however there is no regulation and sadly many vets do not look beyond the bottom line and so do not know the working practices of the pet crematorium they are contracted to or understand there are many different methods of pet cremation that are confusingly described using similar terminology.

The other concern is that your vet may actually also own the pet crematorium they are suggesting you use!  More large vets are buying out pet crematoria but worryingly not making clear to clients that the service they are promoting is “in house”.  Another reason why you must look into who owns the pet crematorium and how they operate.

Worryingly this has led to the following practices becoming commonplace:

  • “one stop” pet crematoriums offering very low cost prices to veterinary practices in order to secure a contract for pet cremation and waste disposal services.
  • Veterinary practices not passing on these very low cost prices but instead making vast profits from selling the pet cremation service to their customers at a hugely inflated price

 EG A cost price to the vet of £50 “for the cremation & ashes back of any size of dog” being charged to the pet owner at £150 – £200

  • Terms like “dignified” and “respectful” wrongly used to describe the routine weekly collection from veterinary practices of pets that have been stored for up to a week in body bags within veterinary chest freezers.

The truth is that most pets left at the vet for an individual or communal cremation service will be taken away in a van, often alongside the clinical waste generated by the vet. The van will normally go on a “weekly round” and carry out a number of collections from the different vets that are contracted to that particular company before it returns to the pet crematorium or to a waste transfer station.

Essential information on choosing the right Pet Cremation Service:

How to choose a Pet Crematorium
Pet Cremation answers