Providing a dignified send-off for pets
Morticians providing personalized care for deceased animals bring comfort to families grieving the loss of their beloved ones
Two years ago when He Haifeng had just opened a pet funeral home, he received an order to handle the remains of a black dog, deeply moving the fledgling pet mortician.
It was a sultry summer in Wuhan, Hubei province, and He made a trip to where the labrador had died. There he was confronted with a sizable, sturdy animal sprawled out in a pool of blood, head lying on a steel and concrete culvert cover and mouth filled with blood.
Several hours later, the owner noticed her dog was missing after she returned from work, and after reviewing surveillance footage, found the pet had managed to nudge open both the main door of her apartment and a corridor window before tragically falling to its death from the high-rise building.
In the sweltering heat, the carcass had started to decompose, with patches of fur beginning to fall off. He asked two passersby to help him carry the 45-kilogram dog onto his vehicle.
As the vehicle made its way to the pet funeral home, its owner wept inconsolably as she recounted her good times with her beloved pooch when she scanned photos and videos on her phone.
The dog joined the family the day she married seven-and-a-half years earlier. It had been chosen because of its rare color, black, and as a symbol of love between her and her husband before the marriage soured.
“The dog was so obedient that when my daughter was born five years ago, it was the one that handed me diapers,” she said and showed a video of her daughter gleefully snatching snacks from the table atop the dog’s back.
“I didn’t say much, because I know what she wanted was someone to listen to her. I only said during her crying intervals that ‘your dog was exceptional, and it was lucky to meet such a caring owner like you,’” He said.
As a pet mortician, He’s original intention was to offer psychological counseling and emotional solace, and years of experience has made him more convinced that, in addition to providing a dignified sendoff for pets, the profession is actually to serve people.
Pet morticians, as the ultimate service providers in the pet industry, perform personalized end-of-life care for deceased animals as their owners are willing to pay more for their beloved companions. This involves embalming, grooming, cremation, ceremonies and costumed memorials.
He, 32, who now owns five stores in Wuhan, Guangdong’s Guangzhou, Sichuan’s Chengdu and Hunan’s Changsha, first considered stepping into the pet industry five years ago, and made up his mind after his own dog passed away from canine parvovirus.
“We went to a pet funeral home in a rural area in Wuhan at the recommendation of our veterinarian,” he said.
He described it as “an unpleasant experience”, not just because of the rough environment — a partially open shed constructed with steel and tarpaulin and several plastic stools — but also because of the “commercialized” atmosphere, with the pet mortician focusing solely on him, the one who paid, and neglecting his weeping wife.
Because they had already cleaned up the carcass at home in advance, the process only involved cremation, costing more than 3,000 yuan ($415).
To engage in the industry, He conducted market research in different cities in China and learned related techniques and regulations.
He attributed the growing popularity of pet funeral services to a rise in people’s well-being and a shift in their recognition.
In China, the first pet funeral services emerged in Beijing and some coastal cities in Southeast China in the early 21st century. Meanwhile, Shanghai took the lead in establishing an animal harmless treatment center, the country’s inaugural nonprofit institution dedicated to handling deceased animals in a centralized approach.
However, the prevailing perception remained that pets were merely laborers and guarders. The industry was stagnant, with the majority of deceased pets being casually buried or discarded, causing environmental pollution and posing risks of infectious diseases.
He said the prime time of the industry didn’t arrive until 2018, when China’s gross domestic product then exceeded 90 trillion yuan for the first time, a 6.6 percent increase year-on-year.
“The development of the pet funeral industry revolves around GDP growth, which also encompasses the economies of loneliness, singlehood and companionship,” He added.
“In my father’s time, even the tuition fee only took 5 yuan, so how were there extra expenses on pets?” he said, adding that one order in his mid-range pet funeral homes takes about 1,000 to 2,500 yuan.
After graduation, He bought a hamster, hearing the sound of it playing on the running wheel when returning home, and after marriage, he got two dogs from his friends for companionship.
Zhang Haiqiang, secretary-general of the China Small Animal Protection Association, said that there has been a significant increase in the number of pets in China in recent years, and the decade-long experience of raising pets has fostered exceptional emotional bonds between owners and their pets.
Zhang also pointed out that the growing population of aging pets has created a development opportunity for the pet’s post-mortem industry.
A white paper on China’s pet industry released by Paiduchongwu, a data platform, showed that last year, China had 51.75 million pet dogs, a 1.1 percent year-on-year increase, and 69.80 million pet cats, a 6.8 percent year-on-year increase. The urban market size for pet dogs and cats reached 279.3 billion yuan, a 3.2 percent year-onyear increase.
According to qcc.com, a comprehensive platform for enterprise credit information and business data service in China, the country has 5,946 pet funeral homes as of March, among which nearly 90 percent were established within the past five years.
With perception change, pet morticians now provide a variety of options to accommodate the different preferences and beliefs of different pet families.
“We serve only one pet family at a time to offer them exclusive service and memory,” said a woman in her late 30s surnamed Li, who set up her pet funeral home in Beijing in late October.
Li said some families are too sad to take part in any funeral procedures, while some express a desire to watch the cremation. Additionally, she encountered a Buddhist family who requested a three-day period of repose for the carcass and another family that custommade a down jacket for their scraggy dog.
“We believe that the special bonds between pets and owners are unique and can’t be institutionalized, and that’s why we’ve named our store ‘Theta Land’ to mean unconditional love,” she said.
As an avid animal lover, Li has adopted eight cats and one dog in her home. After considering their posthumous arrangements and exploring various options in the market, she found none of them met her expectations.
“I suppose they were overly solemn. I think pet funerals should be distinct from those of humans, with people assembling to talk to the pet in a cozy environment,” she said.
Instead of a traditional farewell stand, the farewell room on her second floor features a large carpet, with blankets and fresh flowers placed at the center for the departed pet. She encourages pet owners to create an album to revisit the cherished memories, thereby bolstering their psychological resilience.
“The market in Beijing is almost saturated, so we encountered a tough time at the beginning, with only two orders in the first month,” she said, adding that the situation has improved, with a dozen orders now coming in each month.
Although the earnings haven’t covered her investments including skills learning in Taiwan, as well as designing and renting, Li has become determined in her chosen industry after a senior couple made a bow to her for her considerate services to their Samoyed dog.
“What I need is not a bow, but the message it conveyed — that I’m engaged in something truly meaningful. The happiness it brings is even more enduring than signing a multi-million-yuan business contract during my previous marketing and branding days,” Li said.
As an advocate and practitioner of adoption rather than buying, Li had planned to offer five free cremation slots for deceased stray animals every month, which were swiftly filled within the first week. The store faced a dilemma at that time as the business didn’t fall into place and outsourcing cremation incurred high costs.
“After discussion, we decided to postpone the project, as we can’t afford it,” she said.
“However, given the promising prospects of the industry, once we overcome the initial hurdles, the project will undoubtedly resume, and we are willing to shoulder more social responsibility.”