Mary Allen
The death of the beloved cat hurts endlessly and leaves an enormous hole. Anyone who has their cat cremated will find comfort and help in this situation.
The pain of the death of a beloved pet is indescribable and heartbreaking. Only those who have had such an experience have an idea of the extent of the grief. The death of the cat is not just a farewell to a cute ball of fur, but the loss of a beloved family member.
We lose a being who often made us laugh, a loyal friend and companion who walked with us for many years of our lives. We will never forget the beloved velvet paw and want to say goodbye to her appropriately and lovingly. Many people, therefore, want to cremate the cat. This type of pet burial offers a dignified farewell to a loved one after their death.
Cremation cat: where is it possible?
No one may privately burn and cremate a pet. Because the demand for cremation – a comforting and dignified form of animal burial – is increasing, companies have established themselves in most countries (such as Germany, Austria, and Switzerland) to undertake this. These are companies that
- Own an animal crematorium
- and work together as an animal funeral home with a crematorium.
Only with these companies is it possible to contract and have the cat cremated.
For you as a grieving owner, it is important that the most important decisions and the associated work are quickly relieved of you. Normally, in the first few days, we humans lack the strength to transport the dead pet, have a lot of conversations, and make decisions. Competent pet burial companies will behave respectfully and with restraint because they know what you are going through.
Please contact a company that has a good reputation in this regard or – if you do not know them – whose reviews are consistently positive. A reputable company does not limit itself to picking up the dead body of the animals and bringing back the remains after cremation.
Reputable animal undertakers offer the following services:
- initial consultation with the necessary information,
- Collection of animals from any required place (clinic, veterinarian, home),
- Transfer of the animals directly to the animal crematorium inappropriate cold rooms,
- Information and organization (burial procedure, visiting the showrooms, coordination with the family),
- Urn selection and individual design of the farewell and the urn,
- Bereavement counseling and saying goodbye to the animals.
Process: how does cat cremation work?
When you contact the undertaker, he will take the following steps:
Before the undertaker can cremate the cat, its identity must be verified. You can prove that you are the owner with the pet passport or a purchase contract. Then you have to give the funeral home an order. This is done by means of a contract.
An appointment is then made to pick up the animal and the animal is lovingly picked up in a so-called mountain coffin. This is made of biodegradable and combustible material such as cardboard.
When picking up a pet, a good undertaker should be sensitive and empathetic to the pet’s relatives. The animal is then weighed in order to plan the date and duration of the cremation process. The box is provided with an order number – so that there is no confusion with the beloved pet – and kept in the company’s refrigerated premises until the cremation.
If the pet owners so wish, blankets, letters, toys, or photos of the cat can be given. They are burned in the cremation oven. However, this is only possible with objects that burn without leaving any pollutants. Plastic blankets or plastic toys must not be burned, wooden toy treats or paper can.
The crematorium staff knows exactly how long the cremation of the respective animal will take based on the weight. After the cremation, the combustion chamber is opened and the remains are placed in an afterburning chamber and then in a tub to cool.
In the case of individual cremations, the remains are placed in a special bag at the end, which is sealed by the crematorium. The funeral home will then place the ashes in an urn if you wish.
How soon after death is cat cremation?
Depending on the customer’s wishes, the animals are cremated individually or together with other animals. This is a question of attitude, financial means, and demands. Accordingly, you have to wait longer or shorter for an appointment. Unfortunately, it is never possible to predict when the next appointment will be free.
Your animal may be the first on the waiting list and you will be given the opportunity to be cremated immediately after its death. However, you may have to wait a few days. An individual cremation is usually preferred because with a collective cremation one has to wait until the capacity of the cremation oven is reached.
Even if you want to get this difficult situation over with quickly, you have to understand that many other pet owners are often in the same sad situation as you.
But there’s one thing you don’t need to worry about: the decomposition will be stopped. The body of your beloved cat is cooled either directly at the pet undertaker or in the crematorium. So the decomposition process cannot begin.
Cremation cat: what is the cost?
The cost of cremation depends on several factors.
If you insist on having your animal cremated alone, you will pay more than if you agree to have it cremated with others. One then speaks of individual cremation or collective cremation, which we will discuss in more detail in the next section.
Of course, the prices also vary from region to region and depend heavily on supply and demand. Where there are competing companies, the costs are lower and vice versa.
Recommended prices for a single cremation:
- up to five kilos in weight: 100 to 130 euros,
- up to ten kilos in weight: 130 to 180 euros.
Recommended prices for a collective cremation:
- up to five kilos in weight: 90 to 120 euros,
- up to ten kilos in weight: 120 to 150 euros.
The costs also depend on which additional services you want to use:
If you only need a transport urn or storage urn for the ashes, count on 10 to 30 euros.
However, you can also choose between copper urns, brass urns, wooden urns, ceramic urns, glazed urns, wooden urns, or individually designed artist urns. Accordingly, the urns cost an additional 100 to 500 euros.
If you wish, photos, names, or slogans can also be printed on the urns. However, that raises the prices.
If you want to keep your cat’s remains with you at all times, you can have a portion of them placed in an ashes pendant and hung on a collar or necklace.
The most costly form of “conservation” is turning the cat’s ashes into a gemstone. This costs three to four thousand euros.
Collective cremation or individual cremation?
This is probably the most difficult decision you have to make, not just financially.
There are probably as many opinions on this question as there are pet owners. It’s not just about the money: Some owners find the thought of their animal being cremated with others unbearable. They almost see it as a meaningless mass cremation.
Others find comfort in the thought of their animal’s remains being reduced to ashes with other animals who were loved as well. They have the feeling that their darling would go to the afterlife together with others.
In a collective cremation, several animals are cremated together. Their remains are usually buried in a collective grave. In this case, you will not get any remains of your pet’s ashes back.
The cremation oven will not activate until capacity has been reached, i.e. when several cats, dogs or other animals have gathered for the cremation. Collective cremation is always possible for cats, for dogs there is usually a maximum weight.
With individual cremation, your pet is cremated, and – perhaps most importantly for you – you get back the remains of your beloved pet. So that there is no confusion and it is definitely your pet that was cremated, a chamotte brick with your cat’s details (name or number) is placed in the cremation oven together with your pet for cremation. The firebrick remains with your animal until the end of the cremation process. Because fireclay is not altered by cremation, you’ll know for sure it’s your pet when you get the ashes back after cremation.
Can you take your cat’s ashes home?
You may do with the ashes of your beloved pet as you wish, as long as they remain in the urn. Alternatively, you can set up the urn at home or in the garden. You can also bury the ashes in your garden. If you want to bury them together with the container, it must be made of cardboard (transport urns, storage urns) or wood. It must therefore be biodegradable.
Once the cremation is complete and your cat’s dead body is completely burned, there is no longer any risk of contamination by a disease. That would not be guaranteed with a burial of the dead animal body.
Take your time with your decision until the worst pain of losing the animal is over. Grieving takes time. A suitable farewell in a suitable place can be all the nicer. Your funeral director can give you good advice based on their experience and can protect you from hasty actions.
What place is suitable for the cat’s urn?
All places are possible, you decide. It’s definitely a nice idea if the cat urn is placed where your pet prefers to be. Perhaps you will find a place in your apartment that you associate with beautiful memories.
Can you scatter the cat’s ashes?
Yes, you can, but only in the designated places – these are basically in an animal cemetery. You can find out where one is near you from your undertaker. Sometimes the undertaker even has its own small pet cemetery.
An animal cemetery that specializes in animal graves also usually has its own litter meadows or smaller litter beds. Here you can scatter the remains of your animal and let them blow away with the wind.
In Germany and Austria, no cremation ashes (including those of humans!) may be released into the environment at will. Some neighboring countries are more liberal and allow this, for example, Switzerland. Therefore, the ashes are sometimes taken to a neighboring country to be scattered there.
Could you also bury the cat?
You can have your furry friend buried in a pet cemetery. Here, too, you can choose a collective grave or a single grave. The prices are between 100 and 300 euros. In addition, there is the annual grave rent in the animal cemetery, which you can contractually stipulate for a certain period of time. Your undertaker will offer you suitable gravestones with inscriptions.
You must NOT bury the animal in a forest or meadow or in a public garden or park. The public ground is forbidden in any case!
Can you bury the cat in the garden?
Burial in the garden is possible and permitted if…
- you wrap your cat in a material that can rot (cotton blanket, cotton sheets, cardboard).
- you dig more than half a meter deep.
- the grave is not near a water protection area.
- you can keep a distance of at least one meter from the public ground.
In Austria, another requirement for burial in the garden is that the animal is not suspected of being infected.
In Switzerland, animal burials in your own garden are limited to a maximum weight of 35 kg, which of course is irrelevant for cats.
If you are a tenant, you must ask your landlord for permission to bury your cat in the garden.
There is comfort in knowing that the cat stays close after death. Therefore, those pet owners are probably the most to be envied who have their own garden in which they can carry out the animal burial. It’s all about the feeling – not just about saving the cost of cremation or the pet cemetery.
Where does the cat go if you don’t cremate or bury it?
For some people, a dead body is just a mortal shell. They don’t want anything to do with it anymore. They do without cremation, urn or burial, and tombstone. This attitude is to be respected, but not understood by many loving pet owners.
If the animal owner does not bury the dog or cat, the veterinarian is obliged to hand over the carcass to the animal body disposal. So it goes where slaughterhouse waste or animal carcasses from traffic accidents end up. Normally, these are processed into animal fat or animal meal.
That is why most pet owners opt for cremation, a burial in the garden, or a grave in the pet cemetery. It is the nicer and above all more respectful farewell.