New pet crematorium with personal service planned near Derby – Derbyshire Live
Plans for a highly-personalised pet crematorium, including a farewell room and small beds for deceased animals, have been submitted for any site near Derby. The proposal, put forward by the Tree Tops Kennels and Cattery off Coxbench Road, in Coxbench, a few miles north of Derby, would see a workshop building turned into a pet crematorium.
The new business would be run by Martin Frow of Woodland Pet Cremation Services, who has been running a facility within Sutton-in-Ashfield for four years. A detailed and emotive statement from Mr Frow, forming part of the application, says that the scheme aims to provide a low-key cremation experience for pet owners.
He says the crematorium would not be for use by vet clinics and would only be used for private owners, carrying out just two or three cremations per day. Mr Frow writes: “Having lost my labrador Henry in 2017, I came face to face with the reality of what happens to pets after life when placed into the commercial system used by most vets.
“I was totally unaware that pets are bagged and placed in freezers within minutes of the owners leaving them, following euthanasia, with the standard practice of holding many animals in freezers awaiting a weekly collection by a van, often the same van that collects the vet’s clinical waste, to be taken sometimes 70 miles to a central incinerator where many pets are mass cremated. This left me feeling sad plus sickened to know many owners are left believing their pet’s final journey is one of dignity and care when in fact it’s far removed from that. ”
He said his facilities in Ashfield had cremated animals ranging from hamsters through to large bull mastiffs. Mr Frow details that the facility would have a “farewell room”, a small chapel of rest for people to have their final moments with their pet, and that deceased domestic pets would be placed into a “pet bed complete with pillows and blanket” and then moved into the chilled room.
He says: “Unlike most commercial cremation companies, I will not be looking to do any contact work on behalf of vets and all my clients will be private pet owners who are looking for private individual cremation for their beloved pets. ” Mr Frow says the incinerator would be used for one pet at a time and would be swept after each use to ensure “total returns associated with remains to the owner”.
The application says that current pet cremation facilities are limited to the Heanor and Swadlincote areas and that there is a demand for services in the Derby area. Amber Valley Borough Council will make a decision on the application in the next few months.
This is the second application for a pet crematorium submitted to the borough council in the last six months, with plans for a facility within Ambergate, paired with a “chapel of rest” in Heanor, submitted in May.