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Employees of a pet burial service, dressed in formal undertakers' suits and wearing white gloves, place the undersized coffin of a pet dog in a mourning hall in Shanghai. The company provides bereaved owners with a range of services, including applying makeup to dead pets and arranging memorial ceremonies in accordance with the family's wishes. (Photo: China Daily)
BEIJING, Sept. 17 (Xinhuanet) -- Changing public attitudes toward animal welfare are driving demand for funeral services for family pets, but many companies in the sector are complaining that business is being hampered by a lack of official recognition. Wang Xin and Cang Wei report from Nanjing.
'When I saw her lying peacefully in the coffin, surrounded by flower petals, it looked as though she had just fallen asleep and would wake up again," said Li Chongjian, recalling the memorial service she held for her pet dog in Shanghai.
"Mao Tuan ("Furry Ball") died suddenly of heart disease after spending 12 years with our family. A decent memorial service was necessary to allow us to cherish her memory and get over our grief," Li said.
Following the memorial service and cremation in late August, the 62-year-old retiree paid the company that organized the event an extra 20,000 yuan ($3,140) to compact her dead pet's ashes into a diamond that was later set in a ring.
"This way, Mao Tuan doesn't stop living with us," she said. "She just exists in a different form."
At about the same time as Mao Tuan's service, the funeral of another dog in Shanghai made national headlines because of its unusual formality and extravagance. Employees of the organizer, Shiyou Pet Memorial Service Co, dressed in formal undertakers' suits and wore white gloves as they carried the undersized coffin along the route of the dog's daily walk, before placing it in an expensive "hearse", an Audi A8L sedan. After a cremation service that featured flowers and music, the dog's ashes were sent to a Buddhist temple where monks held a ceremony to "expiate the sins of the dead".
The owner, who would only give her surname as Wang, said her family was overwhelmed by grief when the beloved pet died. "I can't fall asleep these days without hearing the sound she made at night," she said. "She was a family member and we loved her so much. I'll never have another dog after experiencing this devastating pain."
Zhou Jinxia, manager of the pet burial service Shiyou, which means "friend of the Buddha", said every creature, human or animal, deserves a peaceful and dignified exit from this world.
The company provides bereaved owners with a range of services, including applying makeup to dead pets, providing small, tailor-made coffins and arranging memorial ceremonies in accordance with the family's wishes. The price varies from 200 yuan to 9,000, but if a client wants to turn their pet's ashes into a diamond, the cost rises to between 7,000 yuan and 30,000.
A guilty secret
"Pets bring happiness and comfort to families," Zhou said. "Their bodies can't simply be dumped in a trash can or buried in a shallow grave. Unfortunately, those are the most common ways many Chinese deal with the bodies of their pets. A lot of people in China still think it's insane to cremate animals, while many people in foreign countries think it's insane not to," he added.
"We used to advertise our services and phone number on the hearse, but we had to stop after several clients protested, saying they didn't want their neighbors and other people to know they were holding a memorial service for their pets. They didn't want it to become a hot topic among their neighbors," he said.
Local antipathy has forced Shiyou to move premises several times after residents expressed displeasure at finding a funeral parlor for pets in their neighborhoods.
"Many Chinese people are still very superstitious about death and don't want a funeral parlor nearby," Zhou said. "Every company offering pet memorial services in China has experienced the same things-protests from the locals, the sudden termination of office contracts and difficulty finding places to build new incinerator plants."
Tang Wenhao, manager of Nanjing Haichang Harmless Treatment Co, which provides environmentally friendly disposal of dead animals, said Nanjing's first pet cemetery was forced to close in April, even though it had only been operating in the Jiangning district for about a month.
"The local land and resources authorities, along with the environmental protection and urban management departments, ordered the company to apply for official approval to use the land as a cemetery and for a nearby incineration plant. It proved impossible to obtain permission," he said.
"I've applied for approval from the local environmental protection authorities, but they said they are unable to process our application unless the Development and Reform Commission registers the pet incineration plant. However, the commission won't register it because the service we offer - pet cremation-doesn't exist according to the law," he added.
"I can't get permission from the land and resources department, either. It's not realistic in China to use land for pet cemeteries because cemeteries for humans are already in short supply," he said.
