Do you trust pet crematoriums?

This I guess follows on from my dream last night.I used to trust them and since working in a wildlife hospital, don't. There is a pet crem man who comes and takes the bodies the foxes can't eat. Now he used to supply his services to my vet and was asked to "cut corners". when he wouldn't do this, he lost the contract. Now I am sat here thinking that these little caskets around me don't actually contain the remains of my much loved bunnies. When I lost Princess C a few weeks ago, (still feels weird to say that) I opted to bury her in an enormous flower pot at home with a rose bush plated ontop of her.

Do any of you trust pet crematoriums? I guess what you do with a pets body depends entirely on your opinions of death, however I would be interested to know how you all feel about this one?

Since I worked at the vets I have a totally different view on the death of my animals full stop. The freezer full of bodies really brought home to me that there are so many years of life in there, those animals brought so much happiness & have hopefully been huge parts of families lives, and thats what they have ended up as - a body in a freezer, along with all the other bodies. I have always had mine cremated, simply because I lost Charlie when I was on holiday & had signed a form or something stating that he was to be cremated should anything happen to him (Course you never expect that it will do), and I didnt want some of my buns burried at home and others not, it didnt seem right. Death is just such an awful thing that there is no 'nice' option, I shiver at the thought of anyone i care about being burried/cremated, and haven't a clue what i'll do in future - I just cant think about it to be honest. Sorry, this probably doesnt answer your question!

We had our dog PTS last year and we opted to bring him home because we wanted to have him with us and actaully know it was him opposed to a whole mix of animals.

Sounds horrible but a little casket wouldnt have been the same for us, he has a huge wishing well of flowers on his grave with a little brass plaque (sp?) on it, on which we had engraved a few words.

RIP Levi x

I definately don't trust them and never will again. Levi's resting place sounds wonderful Zoe xxxx

I was worried about this as I couldn't bear the thought of handing over a much-loved pet and having them handled without respect. Because of not liking the idea of my precious pet being cremated along with a load of other animals, I have chosen to have each one cremated individually and the caskets returned, which I did question my vet about as I was worried that they would still cremate a few together and then just scoop a load of ashes up and return them as "your" pet. My vet said that they would never do that, and that when you pay for a cremation where they are returned to you, that it is definitely them you get back. Obviously I've only got my vet's word on that and don't really know, though when I lost one of my previous cats I did say I was worried about it and they said that I could actually go along and watch them cremating him and collect the ashes at the same time, so I try and believe that the caskets I have do have Suzie, Gizmo, Popkin (cats), Gracie (bunny), Billy (piggie) and darling Harvey in. Otherwise it would screw me up completely thinking about it. When I am cremated it is in my will to have my ashes, and all the ashes I will have collected by then, scattered together.

I prefer cremation as opposed to burying my animals, but i dont trust pet cremations. Theres now way i would ever know if it was my pet or not.

Its a lovely idea to have all your ashes, mixed with your animals and scattered together!

I am a bit odd on the topic of cremation... Purely and simply its not something I "believe" in!? My reason being if there is an after life I would like to be whole in it... Same as my pets... Its silly really. I don't know if I believe in an afterlife but thats my reason for believing in burying... Its a bit pickled!

Russel was buried in my o/hs garden (I dont have one) and he has a rose bush planted on him which has just sprung out in... RED roses Russel is the Bun of my heart

I have had all of my rabbits communally cremated for 2 reasons, firstly I hold no emotional attachment to the body at all....if I did I probably couldn't put them in the freezer as I have often had to (all my buns seem to leave me at the weekend, Sunday is a favourite) and secondly that we have no where to bury them.

I do hope their remains are treated with espect and that they are dealt with as agreed. I trust my vets implicitly with my pets bodies but I have no way of knowing I can trust the crematoriums.

Phil took Calli's body to be cremated for me on Monday and my wonderful vets refused to take payment for the service

I often think about it. My horse had an individual cremation and i've got his ashes in the lounge. When the man came to pick him up he gave me his word that it would be an individual cremation and i would recieve all his ashes back. I really hope he was true to his word.

Bunbuns wrote:I often think about it. My horse had an individual cremation and i've got his ashes in the lounge. When the man came to pick him up he gave me his word that it would be an individual cremation and i would recieve all his ashes back. I really hope he was true to his word.

I think with horses you are pretty much guaranteed to get them back as they can only do one at a time. I have one of my horses ashes..... At least I hope its mine.

Its our local rescue that does pet cremations rather than an actual business so I would hope that they do indivudual ones if thats what you have asked for and are paying for. They have a garden up there where they scatter all the ashes from communal cremations and you can go and visit x

there used to be a time, where our local vets said if you opted to cremate, you wouldn't recieve the ashes, and they would scatter then on your behalf i dont know if they still follow the policy though, but i hope not!

coco wrote:there used to be a time, where our local vets said if you opted to cremate, you wouldn't recieve the ashes, and they would scatter then on your behalf i dont know if they still follow the policy though, but i hope not!

I think most places you can opt for an individual cremation and have the ashes returned to you