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Here’s a unique opportunity for an animal-loving real estate investor. Any takers? Note: I have no connections whatever with this land or this Realtor. I just saw the listing and thought I’d pass it along. I know there’s a need for more safe and secure places for pet burial for those who choose that over cremation for their pets.—Sid
Everyone who’s lost a pet has had to make a decision about what to do with the body and/or cremains. One home-based business owner decided to provide affordably priced unique, artful urns for both people and pets.—Sid
Funeral urn sales fill a need
Home-based business offers wide selection of vessels at good prices
By Darron Kloster, Times Colonist October 16, 2010
Teresa Westhead displays a selection of cremation urns she is selling as part of a new home-based business.
Photograph by: Darren Stone, Times Colonist, Times Colonist
A Saanich woman’s frustrating search for suitable funeral urns for the remains of her mother-in-law and family pet took her to the other side of the world and head-first into an unusual home-based business.
Teresa Westhead started importing decorative urns from Indonesia and Vietnam earlier this year to give people an alternative to what she calls the often bland and higher-priced urns provided by funeral homes and the containers used by animal hospitals.
Eternal Vessel offers hand-made marble, ceramic and bamboo-lacquer designs that are affordable and blend in with home decor, said Westhead. She carries more than 25 styles of cremation urns — almost all of them selling for $99 or less — about a third of the cost of funeral home urns, said Westhead.
She is currently marketing her products on the web at http://www.EternalVessel.com
“Our father had difficulty finding an urn that was not hundreds of dollars and something that would reflect our mother’s taste and style,” said Westhead, a former paralegal. “After sharing our story with many people, we discovered there was an ongoing theme of frustration in locating a suitable urn or vessel for people’s loved one’s remains.
“Our vessels hide their true nature and allow you to keep your loved one close without the nature of the vessel being obvious to others.”
British Columbia leads all Canadian provinces in cremations at 78 per cent of all deaths, according to the Memorial Society of B.C. The national average is 56 per cent.
People are also increasingly providing funeral services for their pets, or at least having their remains cremated and stored in urns. A new pet funeral parlour is opening next month in Victoria providing various services, including cremations.
The death of Westhead’s dog, Bitta, a rescued giant schnauzer who died at age 12, helped to spur her quest. When the family pet’s ashes were returned in an animal hospital urn, “we were disappointed, to say the least,” said Westhead. “The urn that was provided was not something we would place in our home. She sat hidden in our basement for several years.”
Westhead said buying a funeral urn online can be helpful to families coming from different parts of the province, country or world. “They can all have a say in what’s chosen before the funeral,” she said.
Read more: http://www.timescolonist.com/life/Funeral+sales+fill+need/3681231/story.html#ixzz12Y4vtDBR
If there is one tiny bit of positiveness to come from the Gulf oil spill, it is that compassion for animals (both wildlife and domestic pets) seems to be on the rise. I was touched by the mission of the Sumralls, below. Every time someone creates an environment like theirs to support and sustain the bereaved animal lover, humanity’s collective soul improves just a little bit.—Sid
Pet funeral home opens on Mississippi Gulf Coast
NICOLE DOW, The Sun Herald
Published: 04:00 a.m., Monday, August 2, 2010
GULFPORT, Miss. (AP) — Linda and Glynn Sumrall care about pets. So much that they opened A Pet’s Memory, a pet funeral home and crematory in Gulfport, so owners would have such a facility after the loss of a pet.
“They can sit down and talk to someone where their loss isn’t trivialized,” Linda Sumrall said.
The Sumralls came up with the idea for the business after thinking about what they would do if they lost any of their pets. The family has three golden retrievers — 11-year-old Cindy, 5-year-old Maggie and Molly, who is 2-1/2.
“When we were planning, I thought of how we would want to be treated,” she said.
Linda’s husband, Glynn, said they treat each animal that comes in as if it was their own.
“We meet people on a really bad day and try to make it better,” he said.
The Sumralls started the pet crematory business at the end of June. Before that, Linda had a pet pooper scooper service.
“That shows how much I’m into pets,” she said.
Glynn still works with the U.S. Postal Service.
In 2008, the Sumralls started the Pet Oxygen Recovery Mask Program to supply fire stations throughout Hancock, Harrison, Jackson and Stone counties with reusable oxygen masks to aid pets after a fire.
Linda Sumrall said she started the program after watching the news and hearing a story about a house fire in Gulfport. The family and their dog was rescued, but the pet had taken in too much smoke into its lungs and died, she said.
That’s when she made some calls and discovered that local fire trucks weren’t equipped with oxygen masks to fit pets.
“I thought for sure that the cities would have them,” Sumrall said.
The family decided to raise money to supply the pet oxygen masks to the fire stations across the Coast by hosting car washes and collecting donations from individuals and businesses.
“We’ve donated 66 sets,” Sumrall said. She said they have 32 more to go to supply all 98 stations with a set.
The family is now accepting donations at their pet funeral home. After they finish raising money for the oxygen masks, Sumrall said future funds raised will be donated to the Humane Society.
Sumrall said it was no easy task going from the idea of their business venture to opening the facility.
“It’s taken 2-1/2 years to get this business open,” she said.
Picking the right location was a challenge. They had to have the right permits and certifications and be located in an area suitable to the city and surrounding businesses. A Pet’s Memory is now located on 28th Street in Gulfport. Sumrall said she wanted to have a facility that was dignified and respectable.
The crematory is located onsite where pet owners can arrange a private viewing. The equipment used is similar to what a local funeral home uses, Sumrall said.
Cremation costs are based upon the weight of the animal. Sumrall said the cost of a private cremation starts around $80 and can range to about $210 for heavier pets. A Pet’s Memory has cremated cats and dogs as well as more unusual pets such as a bearded dragon lizard, a guinea pig and a ferret.
The first pet the family cremated was formerly one of their own. Sam, a golden retriever from their dog Maggie’s litter, was killed by a car when he was 2 1/2 years old. His remains are in an urn at the pet funeral home.
A Pet’s Memory Pet Funeral Home and Crematory also sells caskets for families who prefer to bury their pets at home instead of cremating them.
At the funeral home, the Sumralls have set up a “last moment room” where families can say their final goodbyes to their pets.
“A lot of tears are shed,” Sumrall said. “Men have cried, too.”
Sumrall has been certified as a pet bereavement counselor by the Association for Pet Loss and Bereavement. She said she has taken the equivalent of 10 college courses. She also lends her time as an online pet loss counselor for the organization.
“Grief is real, and grief hurts,” she said.
Sumrall said the service her business provides is something that was needed on the Mississippi Coast.
“I’m honored to do this,” she said.
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Information from: The Sun Herald, http://www.sunherald.com
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This article was posted on the Quirky Japan Blog. I like that it’s not only Westerners who cherish their pets and want to honor them posthumously. It’s another way in which we humans are more alike than different in ways that really count. —Sid
Buddhist Pet Funerals
May 17, 2010 — qjphotos
I hear the word “pettoro-su” (pet loss) surprisingly often these days, and it seems a lot of funeral parlors and graveyards are springing up to help bereaved owners put their loved ones to rest. One of the biggest companies is called Petto Ceremoni- Makoto (Sincere Pet Ceremonies), and it offers a wide range of pet funerals and cremations.
If you want to give your pet a sendoff, they have contracts with Buddhist temples to perform ceremonies.
After the funeral, you can have your pet’s ashes stores in a charnel house. According to their brochure, “The Shou Kannon watches over the charnel house. It’s said to be a Bodhisattva with great compassion, so you’ll be able to feel confident that your beloved pet’s soul is resting in peace through it’s enfolding kindness.” The urn storage service is free the first year, and costs 5,000 yen per year after that.
Here’s an article with more information about pet funerals: http://www.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Asia/Story/A1Story20090702-152168.html
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