I recently paid to have a dog cremated, and now I have a question about the process?
I recently paid $100 bucks to have my brother in laws’ deceased dog cremated, and when I got the ashes back, I noticed that they were about the same amount as the ashes from a cremated human. (yes, I’ve looked inside funeral urns). Do you think they cremate each dead animal individually, or do they do several at a time, and simply separate the resulting ash into several equal piles? Surely a 60 – 70 lb. dog wouldn’t create as much ash as a 185 lb. person?
I know a few details about the process of human cremation, (including which bones do not get burned completely and have to be ground up). I wonder if it is the same for pets, is it done individually or do they simply incinerate a bunch of dead pets at once?
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15 Answers
Perhaps there are physical similarities between what can turn to ash in a human and what turns to ash in a dog? Maybe the fur?
Interesting question.
What a morbid question…but I’m curious now. I wonder if they put some sort of filler in there? I don’t know..I’ve never seen an urn or ashes.
@casheroo yeah, I have a morbid curiosity about these things, no wonder I briefly considered a career in the funeral business.
For $100 you should have gotten the ashes of your pet only, but you will only get that if specifically requested. It should have cost less than half for what you received. Perhaps you paid for a fancy box?
I do not know about the mass ash- but I have a dog in an urn and she is about 4 cups of ash. The human ash I ran across- and yes- I opened it (it is a rather unique story best not shared on a public forum but very entertaining) appeared to be about 8 cups. So in my case- with a medium sized dog I ended up with roughly half the ash.
On a side note it is easy to tell the difference between human and animal ash microscopically. As you mentioned in your question creamation involves burning of all the soft tissues and then grinding the remaining bone. The osteocytes in the bone are visible under microscope. Human osteocytes are different than that of animals.
@Dog that’s what I have, about 4 cups. The human ashes I saw was about that much as well, unless my memory is suspect. Thanks for your answers everyone, and for putting up with my morbid curiosity. =)
It depends on the policy of the pet crematorium. We use one that is more expensive than the competition because they cremate individually. Many will place several animals in the oven, and then divide out the ashes.
The volume will also be determined by how thoroughly they cremate and whether they remove the large “chunks” of bones that are invariably left.
@evelyns_pet_zebra….I received about two cups for a medium dog, one cup for a cat and four cups for an overweight pot-belly pig.
@whatthefluther I think the pig might have better cremated over hot charcoal briquettes with a slathering of BBQ sauce. =)
@evelyns_pet_zebra…That’s what I suspected! He was under two years of age and quite pleasingly plump! And the tin was a bit sticky. And the receptionist had a couple of spots on her blouse not unlike BBQ sauce and would not look me in the eye! Darn….I love spare ribs and carnitas!
I have been involved in the request for cremation of a lot of animals (long story) and there was always discussion before the fact regarding whether or not I wanted an individual or group cremation.
Last one I had done was one of my own dogs, he was about a 90 lb bouvier and it was 9 years ago so I am not certain but I think I paid a lot more than $100 for the job, but I am in Australia, could be more expensive here. I have him in an urn, but I never opened the urn to check out how much stuff is in there. I did have the ashes though of an OES and that filled up a quart jar.
I thought cremation was less expensive than burial. I paid 200.00 for the burial of my dog last year and 100.00 for the marker, so that sounds about right. I did start out with a very expensive marker; dog etched on it, the words “Lexi, best dog ever, beloved pet of China, adopted date, death date.” What? $1,500?? So that quickly changed to small stone and the words Lexi-2008. They can sure get you when you are at your worst and feel like you really need to honor your pet.
The two pet crematoria I have had contact with will do either a bulk cremation and portion out the ashes so you get some of your own pet back, or for a higher charge, will individually cremate your pet and swear the ashes you get back are just those of your deceased. For a much smaller charge they will bulk cremate your pet and send them to the landfill. For free the vet will put the animal in the trash for pick up by the city.
I just got the ashes of Franklin the Blue-Eyed Wonder Cat back and the box for the urn also included a signed certificate swearing these were the ashes of Franklin and no one else. It cost $190 for the individual cremation and a nasty-looking urn this time.
The last time I cremated a pet, it cost $229 for my 60-pound Shar-Pei (my avatar) but I got back a hand-painted wooden chest with Gracie’s name and footprint on it. I liked the chest better than the urn. My vet was using a different company. I don’t know why he switched.
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