What makes Dignity pet cremation services different from those offered by your vet?
This is a question we get asked a lot, so we’re going to go through some of the differences to help you choose if an individual cremation at Dignity is right for you. Choosing a pet crematorium is a deeply personal choice and we encourage everyone to ask questions of their provider.
It’s likely that when you need to think about pet cremation services you will be going through the grieving process. This is not the best time to make an important decision. We recommend you do your research and have a think about the way you would like your pet to be treated before the time comes.
Individual vs. communal cremation
The main difference between the cremation services we offer here at Dignity and those provided by your vet will be in how the pets are cremated. We only carry out individual cremations, which means your pet will be placed into the chamber on their own, and you will only receive their ashes back. Prior to cremation, we place each pet in their own plastic bed, in a cool storage area. We do not store pets in freezers.
Some vets do offer an individual service, however, pets are usually placed into plastic bags in freezers until they can be collected. Make sure you ask plenty of questions when choosing your cremation provider so that you know the type of service you are paying for.
Price
There’s no denying that our individual pet cremation services are more costly than a communal service. Our drivers work on a responsive basis, which means they visit each veterinary practice as and when they are needed – usually within 1 working day of the request to collect. Larger companies will usually visit each vet once or twice a week to pick up any pets that have been referred to them.
As you can imagine, there is a higher cost of employing several drivers as well as a full customer service team. We feel it’s important to be transparent about our working practices and our prices, you can find out more about this here.
For those who want to plan ahead, we offer a Pre-Payment Plan. You can pay a set monthly fee to ensure your pet will be looked after by Dignity when the time comes.
Personal touches
A big part of what makes the service we offer special is because we personalise it for each client. Once your pet has arrived here at Dignity we will call you to let you know, and we go through all your wishes on the phone. We know how important each and every pet is, so we offer pre-cremation options such as paw prints and fur clippings to help you remember them. If you wish, a member of our team can call or text you at different points during the process – this can provide peace of mind to some pet owners.
As a specialist independent pet crematorium, we pride ourselves on the service we provide to our clients.
Run by pet lovers
Ensuring that people are on board with our values is an important part of our recruitment process. Every member of the Dignity team is an animal lover which is why they are so caring and compassionate.
We are not saying that the vets who sold you the service are not pet lovers. In fact, we know that they are as many of them use our services themselves. However, many of the crematoriums are owned by the same large corporations who own the veterinary practice so the staff sometimes have no choice but to only offer you this service.
Inspected and approved by the APPCC
Our crematorium has been independently inspected and approved by the Association of Private Pet Cemeteries & Crematoria. The APPCC “set standards to ensure that you, the pet owner, receive the service you expect, carried out the way you want.”
Do you have any questions about the Dignity pet cremation services? We’re always happy to answer questions so get in touch via phone, online chat or Facebook.
Photo by Jamie Street on Unsplash