On Wednesday 20th September 2023, there was a report on the distressing story of a pet crematorium losing two sets of ashes, one belonging to Jake and the other to Holly, covered by the BBC One Show Watchdog on The One Show.
Watch report here – 1:39 seconds in
The CVS vets in our area are very supportive to pet owners and families and always have the choice of opting for our service instead of leaving their pet at the vet to be collected each week by the local CVS Pet Crematorium.
Kevin Spurgeon, the Owner of Dignity says: “Sadly, the programme didn’t delve deeper into the problems created by large corporate vets owning their own crematoria and why these “mistakes” happened. Did the families even know that Whitley Brook was owned by the same company as their vet? When you look at the sheer volume of pets being collected each day by the corporates along with how much-loved pets are transported and handled that starts to reveal part of the problem. Families are seldom given a choice of crematoria or enough information on how their pet will be treated to make an informed decision after their pet has been put to sleep. This is why I’m passionate that we are transparent and clearly explain each pet’s journey at Dignity. From how we identify them whilst with us, respectfully transport them in our beds, lay them in state in our cool room, gently place them in an individual chamber and carefully remove all of their ashes afterwards.
We are also lucky enough to work alongside dedicated and caring vet staff at both independent and corporate vets who give families a choice and help us give their pet a loving and respectful send off. Without their support many families wouldn’t know we even existed. Sending my heartfelt thoughts to the two families involved, although they are just the tip of the iceberg sadly. Kevin ❤️🐾”
At Dignity, we ensure that your pet is handled and cremated individually with great care and respect. Each pet is cremated on their own thus ensuring that you always receive your own pet’s ashes back. We provide a Certificate of Authenticity that is returned to you with your pet’s ashes.
We pride ourselves on individual cremations. Whether they are a hamster or a Great Dane, only one pet is cremated in the chamber at a time. A log book is kept by each chamber and the details of the pet (including their name, the owners’ surname, their size, the start time of the cremation and the date) are recorded for every cremation. These details are also inputted digitally into our CRM system.
We follow the APPCC Code of Practice and are independently inspected and approved by them (the inspection process ensures we are complying with Consumer Protection Regulations that protect the vets and pet owners).
- We identify pets using their microchip and place ID forms with them as soon as they are in our care.
- We transport all pets within a bed and handle them respectfully at all time (we never pile pets on top of one another and clearly identify their location when in our cool room).
- We have a series of quality control checks at different stages.
- We carefully sweep all ashes from our chambers every time.
- We always label ashes immediately and place them within our temporary containers (pods) along with their ID paperwork.
This is why Dignity is different and this is our promise to all our clients:
To be sure that you are making the best final journey decision we encourage you to ask the following questions to your vet, crematorium, or cemetery:
For full details of our Cremation Service, please visit: Code of Practice | Dignity Pet Crematorium