The Realities of Running a Pet Crematorium
Running a successful pet crematorium can be a wonderfully rewarding experience which centres around helping families through a very difficult time, not just providing a practical service. Owners who lose a pet need compassionate support from people who understand the pain of losing the four-legged members of our families. Alongside the respectful handling of pets from the time they arrive into your care until they are returned to their owners, providing support and comfort to bereaved families is the foundation of your business.
You will need to be calm and empathetic to meet the emotional needs of the individual owners and families who will all be grieving in their own unique ways. They will need different levels of attention based on their personalities and situations.
Patience is essential; grief can make decision-making difficult and owners may change their minds multiple times in regard to services they want for their pets. They must never be rushed or pressured, as there is only one chance to get their pets final journey right.
You must have the ability to listen carefully, as people often have a lot to say about their beloved pets and key information about their wishes for the service is often tied to the wonderful memories they have and want to share with you.
You will need excellent communication skills and give clear, concise information to your customers to avoid any misunderstandings in what they can expect from you. Good organisation skills and an eye for detail are also key skills; small details are what really make the difference for families. The smallest of mistakes can be devastating to owners at what is already an incredibly difficult time.
A good level of strength and fitness is important too; dogs can be heavy and you will need to be able to handle lifting and moving them in a respectful manner.
Please also be aware that some of the practical aspects of running a crematorium are not for the faint of heart.
Running a successful crematorium has a tendency to become your life, rather than a 9-5 business, so be aware that there will likely be long hours and a lot of hard work involved. Most of the APPCC members started a crematorium because they genuinely care about the respectful handling of pets and wanted to provide this important service in their communities. They succeed because they truly empathise with the pain of losing a pet and know how important it is to get their final journey right.
If this all sounds like something you can provide in your community, consider joining the APPCC as a provisional member to learn more about whether it is the right move for you and get practical help and advice getting started.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need planning permission?
Yes, absolutely. If the land you wish to use does not have existing planning permission for a pet crematorium, you will need to apply for it.
Is it difficult to get planning permission?
Not especially, a lot of crematoriums have been approved despite fierce opposition from local residents who worry about smoke, smells and the general concept of the nature of the business. (It is your responsibility to follow proper protocols and be a good neighbour in all your business practices if you do receive approval.)
Conversely, we have had fledgling crematoriums join us who have been sold cremators by companies who told them that they do not need planning permission and then found themselves in a whole world of difficulties as a result.
You will also need approval from APHA, who will conduct routine inspections to ensure you are complying with relevant legislation.
What can I expect from inspections?
APHA inspections are a legal requirement to ensure you are complying with regulations for “waste disposal” of “animal by-products”. They have the power to shut you down and issue fines for non-compliance.
The term “waste disposal” does not reflect the service of APPCC members, who are held to a higher standard and are independently inspected as a requirement of membership. We believe that pets deserve the same respect and dignity in death as any beloved family member. As an APPCC member you will be inspected to ensure that you are adhering to our code of conduct, which gives pet owners the peace of mind they need when deciding who to entrust their beloved pet’s final journey to.
Is it lucrative?
This depends on a lot of factors so be wary of any companies trying to sell you a vision of untold riches. This is a difficult time for the industry, as multinational corporations with their own large-scale cremation operations are buying up veterinary practices all over the UK. That said, people are quite rightly turning to the smaller crematoriums that will treat their pet with more compassion. A good piece of general advice is that, were you to need the services of a pet crematorium, is it something that is available in your area? If not, then you could reasonably expect to find success providing this important service within your community.
Should I join the APPCC?
If you’re thinking about starting a pet crematorium, it makes sense to join as a provisional member so that you can meet successful crematorium owners and find out what it’s really like BEFORE you go ahead and buy that expensive cremator. There is also a wealth of industry information available to members that can be very useful when starting out.
If you decide that establishing a pet crematorium is the right move for you, the APPCC community is a wonderful place to find support and solidarity for many of the difficult aspects of running a pet crematorium. We often face the same difficulties together and share helpful advice on practical issues. We care about animals, we love our pets and we know our friends within the APPCC do too, so we’re more than happy to refer each other, knowing that the pet owner will receive the same great level of care as they would if we handled the cremation personally.
This compassionate care is guaranteed by the APPCC code of conduct. APPCC accreditation is our promise to pet owners that they will receive their pet’s true ashes and that their pet will be treated with the respect any beloved family member deserves while in our care. This is our guiding principle and we enforce it fiercely. This sets us aside from other crematoriums which may not be so caring with how they store pets entrusted to them or so meticulous with the ashes given back to owners.
Why do the APPCC offer help to new crematoriums? What’s in it for you?
Many of our members set up crematoriums because they learned of the bad practices in the industry and wanted better for pets and owners everywhere. We are more than happy to extend a hand to anyone wishing to provide the same level of service and we put encouraging compassionate care across the industry above all else. We are stronger together in demanding better treatment of pets.
Additionally, the unscrupulous practices of callous operators paints us all in a bad light and generates mistrust from the public at such a sensitive time. This means that even when we in the APPCC do right, owners carry the pain of worry that this mistrust has created. We want all pet cremations to be done with compassion, across the entire industry, and the only way we can do it is with unity and by being the example we want everyone to follow.
Why not just share all of your information freely? Why have a paywall?
While we are happy to provide enough facts to help prevent prospective crematorium operators from being misinformed and potentially regretting parting with their hard-earned money, the full benefit of our collective years of experience is something we share with each other within the community we have built of like-minded individuals focused on delivering the respectful service that animals deserve.
To put it more bluntly; we are not going to help anyone set up a cowboy operation with poor standards and undignified handling.
What about aqua cremations?
We are currently conducting ongoing research into aqua cremations to establish whether common practices are compatible with our guiding principle. If you are considering getting into aqua cremations and have no previous experience in the pet cremation industry, we do recommend you seek information from crematorium operators to get a larger picture of what the public expect from a cremation service.
What is it like working with the public?
It is very rewarding but often heart-breaking. Remember that people will be coming to you on what may be the worst day of their life. You will need to be compassionate, patient and happy to listen to everything they may want to share with you about their relationship with their pet. Providing emotional support to the bereaved is an important part of the job, as well as being incredibly careful to get everything exactly right for their pet’s cremation. There is only one chance to get this right and the smallest mistake can be absolutely devastating to grieving owners.
What is it like working with vets?
Most vets already have arrangements in place for cremations so it is most likely that a fledgling crematorium would have to rely on new practices opening, mobile vets in their area or existing vets becoming dissatisfied with the service they are currently receiving if they want to cater to the veterinary community. As mentioned earlier, it is a difficult time with large companies having somewhat of a monopoly by combining their ownership of veterinary practices with their ownership of crematoriums. As they operate in “bulk” it is very difficult to compete with them on price, as the respectful transportation, storage and cremation of pets carry greater overheads which is what small, private crematoriums offer.
If you can develop a working relationship with a veterinary practice, they will typically expect you to collect pets from their surgery (or surgeries) and deliver the ashes back on a schedule which is agreeable to you both. Mobile vets are more likely to bring pets to you directly, with the ashes being returned to the owner either by the vet themselves or the owner coming to your crematorium to collect from you. You may wish to agree to deliver the ashes to the owner’s address.
