ROYAL OAK, MI — Most Americans have at least one dog or a cat, and most regard their animals as full family members.
That includes me, and the worst thing is that their lives are so much shorter than ours. Last month, time ran out for my big red and white Australian Shepherd Ashley.
Nearly everyone who has owned a dog or cat knows they will probably outlive their pet … but few think much about what happens to their companion animal’s body after they pass away.
That’s an area where society is now seeing a dramatic change, as I learned when Ashley died. Not long ago, after most pets died or had to be humanely euthanized, they were anonymously cremated and their ashes were packed in drums and disposed of in landfills, as was the case the last time I lost a dog.
Not anymore. Meet Tom Rood, the COO of Faithful Companion, which is perhaps the largest privately-owned pet cremation service in the country. “We approach pets as family members and handle them the same way we would handle humans,” he said, and he should know. Rood, who is in his late 50s, is a trained mortician who spent years as a human funeral director, working for a family that owned funeral homes.
“They started the pet cremation thing as a sideline to the human business, and it took off so well that now we’ve sold the human business to another part of the family,” he said.
Taking off might be an understatement. The metro Detroit branch of Faithful Companions does about 60,000 cremations a year, nearly all being dogs and cats, though they also have cremated snakes, hamsters, gerbils, emus and llamas.
Demand is increasing 20 percent a year, and is such that they are moving to a much larger facility in nearby Troy later this summer. They also have nine more locations, including Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati; a branch in Pittsburgh may be coming this fall.
Much of the secret of their success may be the respect they show the departed animal. “No pet is ever discarded, or frozen.” If the owner wants an individual animal’s ashes back, as about half now do, “we return them to the family within 24 hours.”
Faithful Companion normally uses their fleet of 18 Honda Odyssey minivans to deliver the cremains right to the client’s home, unless the human can’t be there, in which case they take them to their veterinary hospital. “We don’t drop them off –somebody has to be there. I wouldn’t leave your mother’s ashes on your doorstep, and we aren’t going to leave a pet’s either.”
Normally, the ashes — actually, powdered bone fragments — are delivered in a small red wooden box, with a burlap bag inside holding a plastic bag with the remains. Meticulous precautions are taken to ensure they are only from that animal.
Some clients pay to have the box engraved, or have a photo added to a cultured marble urn for a higher fee.
Those animals whose owners don’t want their bodies back are cremated and buried together at a pet cemetery in Ypsilanti Township. Reverently, that is: “We don’t ever throw any pet away,” the funeral director said.
Customers who want an individual cremation pay a standard fee of $310, a cost that includes pickup and delivery and a cardboard container with a pad on which the animal’s body is placed during the cremation. There’s a discount if you deliver your pet’s body yourself.
The cost is the same whether you have a Great Pyrenees or a kitten. “Some places charge by weight. We don’t. If you are getting your mother cremated, they don’t ask how much mom weighed,” Rood said. Tiny creatures like gerbils, however, are as low as $75.
Faithful Companion’s services don’t stop at cremation, however. In a world where 90 percent of people say their animal is a full member of the family, death can be a crippling psychological blow.
Accordingly, “part of what we do is to try and provide support materials,” the executive said. They have a family room with coloring books for both adults and children, guides to journaling about your lost pet and “other grief resources we can give to the family.”
They also partner with an online company called Pet Cloud, which provides materials and sponsors online counseling and discussion forums for those who are grieving. “That’s probably the thing that’s changed the most over the last decade; a dramatic increase in the number of people feeling comfortable with others saying how bad they feel about the loss of their pet.”
From his time as a human funeral director, Rood knows how important psychological factors are, and Faithful Companions sponsors programs in which those who work in veterinary medicine can get continuing education credits for learning to talk to people about grief and loss. The company understands that too.
Children often come in with their families to say goodbye. “Is this emotionally healthy? Definitely,” he said.
“We provide a chance for closure that is comfortable.”
With pet ownership rising dramatically during the pandemic, it is likely that places like Faithful Companions will continue to grow, as will demand for both their cremation and psychological services.
Incidentally, my own sadness has been greatly helped by my own personal grief counselor; my other Australian Shepherd, a rambunctious two-year-old named Chet. Many people, I know, live without pets. I just can’t imagine being one.
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(A version of this column appeared in the Toledo Blade)
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