Dog-gone good business: Entrepreneurs bullish on pet after-care
Demand for pet funeral services is growing, with cremation for beloved companions now more popular than burial, local service providers said.
“You’re seeing a society in which people are more mobile and they want to take their pets (remains) with them when they move,” said Phil McArthur, owner of Tulsa-based Pets at Peace. “And more people are sharing portions of those remains with other family members. - It’s happening more and more every year. I have been surprised at the way the trend has taken off.”
McArthur and others in the industry pointed to other changes in society that are driving an overall increase in services. The life expectancy for owned dogs, for example, has almost doubled in recent decades, from seven years for a midsize dog to the mid-teens. Because pet health care has improved, people have more time to invest in their companions. “After-care,” as cremation or burial services are called, seems to be even more justified after such a long life, said Precious Pets Cemetery owner Linda McCullough.
“It’s the cyclical nature of our lives, as we live longer, too,” said McArthur, whose company also serves Oklahoma City with pickup trips for bodies and return delivery of remains twice per week. “When your kids are gone, suddenly your pets become your kids. - These pets have become an integral part of our families.”
And the American Pet Product Manu- facturers Association reported its 2005-06 National Pet Owners Survey shows pet ownership is at its highest level, with about 69 million U.S. households with a pet. That’s up from 64 million in 2002 and 51 million in 1988 when APPMA’s tracking began. The association found through its survey that Americans own about 73 million dogs and 90 million cats.
Most pet crematorium businesses offer a range of options for animal ashes. The most personal resolution is to save the remains in an attractive container - McArthur prides himself on the company’s handcrafted urns, for example. If the family doesn’t want a keepsake, Pets at Peace will offer to spread the ashes in a memorial setting of some sort, sometimes with other animals at the same time. The least personal is merely a sanitary disposal, he said.
The APPMA survey found that pet owners are also opting for remembrance memorials that incorporate a lock of pet hair or other remainder mixed with perennial seeds, and man-made diamonds that include a pet’s ashes.
Cindy Smith, owner of Evergreen Place Pet Cremation in Yukon, said the growing industry numbers convinced her to found her own company earlier this year. She saw an unmet need for such services in the western part of the Oklahoma City metro area, for both personal services and disposals arranged by veterinarians. Evergreen is expected to be open for business by late November or early December, she said.
Smith agreed with McArthur and said cremation also allows a pet owner to be buried with a beloved companion: The pet’s ashes can be saved in an urn and placed in the owner’s coffin years later.
“It’s really the only option for them, because animals aren’t embalmed like people are,” she said.
At Precious Pets in Spencer, McCullough noted that the entire pet industry has exploded - a pet owner can now hire pet masseuses to follow up a pet’s grooming, pet-sitters and day-care centers, pet bakeries, pet designer clothes and Halloween costumes, pet insurance and even pet therapists.
“After you consider a psychologist for your dog - well, there’s so much stuff out there now that it makes after-care look pretty normal by comparison,” she said.