Does it take a sense of ritual to bid farewell to a dead pet?
Reporter investigates the development status of pet funeral industry
● Remains cleanup, farewell ceremony, individual cremation, customized souvenirs... In recent years, with the rapid development of the pet market, the pet funeral industry has rapidly emerged. As of November 2020, there are nearly 1,400 companies nationwide with business scope including "pet funerals, pet funerals, and animal harmless treatment"
● With the aging trend and the increase in the number of people living alone, more and more people invest a lot of money and time in pets and regard pets as their spiritual companions and family members. Decently sending away "family members" can better maintain and satisfy the pet owner's emotional connection and emotional memory of the dead pet
● Discard the remains of pets at will, deny pet owners to watch the entire service on site, and give the ashes of other people's pets to pet owners... During the development of the pet funeral industry, some unscrupulous operators have violated regulations, infringed on the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, and polluted the environment, etc. problem
● The pet industry association or related organizations can be responsible for formulating the "Pet Funeral Service Regulations", and provide relevant knowledge training for personnel and institutions engaged in pet funerals, focusing on the harmless treatment of pet carcasses, preventing the spread of pathogens and environmental pollution
□ Our newspaper trainee reporter Sun Tianjiao
□ Our reporter Chen Lei and Zhao Li
"(Puppy) barked all night last night. I didn’t care too much. I found it out today.” At 13:00 on December 14, 2021, a family of three came to Fengtai, Beijing, holding the remains of the puppy. A pet funeral center called "Chong Mu" in the district.
The gray-haired old couple watched the staff clean up the puppy. At first, they had a calm tone. When the puppy's body was cleaned up and ready to be sent to the farewell room, the old lady's mood was a little bit restless, with a crying voice. Muttered to himself: "Why did you leave suddenly?"
In the warmly arranged farewell room, the family of three and the puppy had a final farewell.
Immediately afterwards, the puppy was sent to Chongmu's cremation hall in the outer suburbs for cremation.
With the support of their daughter, the old couple returned to the car in low spirits, and the daughter turned back and exhorted the staff.
The above process takes approximately one hour.
Remains cleanup, farewell ceremony, individual cremation, customized souvenirs... In recent years, with the rapid development of the pet market, the pet funeral industry has rapidly emerged. According to the "Pet Industry Enterprise Data Report (2020)" released by Tianyancha, as of November 2020 In September, there were nearly 1,400 enterprises with business scope including "pet funeral and interment, pet funeral, and animal harmless treatment".
However, the current consumption penetration rate of pet funerals (meaning that a category has been consumed at least once) is not high.
The "White Paper on China's Pet Industry in 2020" shows that in China's urban pet (dog and cat) consumer market, the consumption penetration rate of pet funerals is only 3.6%.
How do people view the pet funeral industry?
What's the secret behind the rapid development of the industry?
In this regard, a reporter from the Rule of Law Daily launched an in-depth investigation.
Need a farewell ceremony
Decently send away family members
She almost kept crying from the moment she entered the store until she left.
In the farewell room, she lay next to the French bulldog's body and continued to cry for more than two hours, until she fell to the ground.
This is a scene when a female customer goes to the "Maoqiu·Yiguan Pet Cremation Service Center" in Shuangliu District, Chengdu, Sichuan to bid farewell to her pet dog.
Perhaps, many people, especially those who do not own pets, have difficulty understanding such a scene, but Gan Yali, the person in charge of the center and pet funeral director, feels the same—she has also experienced similar sorrows.
Gan Yali once raised a black rabbit, named "Sister".
In 2017, in the 5th year and 14 days after coming to her, the "sister" passed away.
At that time, the domestic pet funeral service market was still very small. In order to give her "sister" a decent funeral, she even went to Japan, where the pet funeral service industry is more mature.
There are many stories similar to female clients, Gan Yali and pets.
In recent years, with the rapid development of my country’s economy and the improvement of people’s living standards, the number of people keeping pets has continued to increase, especially with the aging trend and the increase in people living alone. More and more people have invested a lot of money and time in pets and regarded pets as A spiritual partner and family member.
In this context, how to deal with pets after their death has become a real problem.
The reporter randomly interviewed 15 dog owners in Beijing, Jiangsu, Shanxi and other places. Although some people have not heard of or learned about pet funeral services, most of them said that they "will consider this service." A formal farewell ceremony".
Sherry from Shanghai participated in the cremation process of the pet dog "Lala".
Sherry told reporters that she and "Lala" have lived together for 16 years and have a deep relationship. As "Lala" gets older and her kidneys are shrinking, she begins to look for pet funeral institutions and choose the best within her abilities. One family, the main demand is that "Lala" must be individually cremated and take away the ashes on the spot.
On the morning of April 5, 2021, "Lala" closed his eyes forever. Despite her psychological preparation, Sherry and her family were still extremely sad.
After packing up the relics of "Lala", went to the pet funeral facility to clean up the remains, the farewell ceremony, the cremation on the sidelines, the ashes...
But the experience of the day was not good.
"The environment is much simpler than I thought. The farewell ceremony is in an open environment and there is no privacy; when the ashes are picked up, there are other pet owners waiting for the pet to be cremated." Sherry recalled.
It is also the bad sense of experience that became the direct cause of Li Chao's establishment of Chong Admiration.
Li Chao has raised two huskies, one named JoJo and the other named Lucky.
One day in 2015, JoJo had a seizure and passed away.
Originally, he wanted to dispose of JoJo's body by burial, but in a big city, where it was buried, whether it would cause pollution, and a series of questions, he gave up this idea and turned to search for other pet body disposal methods on the Internet. Finally, a pet funeral agency was selected.
This is his first contact with pet funerals.
At the scene, he was crying violently, but the staff not far away were talking and laughing there, and after cremation, he had to add extra money to take the ashes.
This experience became his heart knot. Later, he consulted a lot of information and gave up his stable job. Together with a few friends, he founded Chongmu at the end of 2015.
Recently, the reporter walked into the "Chongmu Pet Funeral Center" and saw Li Chao, a tall and shy smile, on the bookshelf in his office, with a picture of him staring down at a puppy.
"Probably because I have been exposed to the rain, I want to hold an umbrella for others. I don't want to just treat pet funerals as a business, because we have emotions in our hearts." Li Chao told reporters his original intention of establishing Chongmu.
Carry out pet funeral services
Various difficulties followed one after another
According to Liu Hongyan, director of the Ecological Law Research Office of the Institute of Law of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, pet funeral services originated from Japan and were introduced to China around 2005.
The global method of pet funerals is cremation. Cremation not only avoids the spread of bacteria that may be caused by burial and other processing methods, but also for pet owners, sending away "family members" decently can be better maintained and satisfied. The pet owner's emotional connection and emotional memory of the dead pet.
The reporter's investigation found that, in the eyes of many pet owners, it is a matter of course and a real need to give away their dead pets. Many others find it difficult to understand this, and even cast strange eyes on it.
This also means that the development of pet funeral services will not be smooth sailing.
Gan Yali has a deep understanding of the difficulties.
Going to Japan to send off her "sister" and experience Japan's mature pet funeral services. Thinking of China's growing pet economy, Gan Yali decided to join the pet funeral industry.
As soon as the idea was proposed, it was strongly opposed by the family.
"My parents don't understand very much. In their view, my job was very stable and my income was good. They had never heard of the pet funeral industry. Whenever I mentioned it to them, I just broke up. ." Gan Yali said.
But she has made up her mind and quickly put into preparatory work.
Difficulties ensued, and she ran into big troubles in renting and choosing the location of the shop-many places heard that she was going to be a pet funeral, but felt unlucky and refused directly, even the price was unwilling to discuss.
After finally finding a suitable store and negotiating a good price, it was boycotted by more than 40 shopkeepers in the surrounding area. They kept complaining to the relevant departments and even went to the door to obstruct the decoration.
Gan Yali had to go to the door to explain to more than 40 shopkeepers one by one, and signed a letter of guarantee to ensure that she would not be cremated here, not play sorrows, and take full responsibility for the plague.
"Maoqiu·Yiguan Pet Cremation Service Center" has 7 functional areas including reception area, body beauty area, farewell area, refrigerated burial area, and memorial area. It opened in November 2019 and has provided relevant services for more than 900 times.
"I hope that the public can understand more about pet owners, and that pet owners can understand more about pet funerals. I hope that all pet owners will have no regrets after the death of their pets." Li Chao said that at present, the pets have been loved. Form a complete set of pet funeral process, including pets to the store to clean up the remains, separate farewell room farewell, arranging cremation, storage of ashes, with environmentally friendly ashes bags, most of which can meet the most basic needs of pet owners.
In addition, Chongmu also provides pet souvenir making.
The reporter saw that samples of souvenirs were placed in the glass booth in the pet hall, and each one was clearly marked with a price.
Li Chao said: “Our store’s rules are that one is to clearly mark the price, and the other is not to actively recommend products. Customers can only introduce products when they ask.”
With the rapid development and expansion of the pet funeral industry, the staff engaged in the industry also have a more professional title-pet funeral director.
In their work, pet funeral directors have witnessed too many joys and sorrows.
Orange, a pet funeral director, has been in business for more than 4 years.
In July 2018, in order to give her puppy a decent funeral, Tang Zi rushed to Beijing from her hometown in Pingxiang, Jiangxi, and officially sent the puppy away in Chongmu.
In the process of communicating with the staff, Orange had the idea of becoming a pet funeral director.
After 3 months of pre-training, the orange can be used independently.
Now, he has become the manager of Chongmu Fengtai store.
Qualification safety attracts attention
Lack of reference standards for prices
As we all know, funeral and interment is a special industry, and the disposal of animal remains involves many issues such as hygiene and environment.
During the interview, many interviewees also raised doubts: Do these pet funeral agencies have relevant qualifications?
Is their handling of animal remains in compliance with epidemic prevention requirements and is it safe?
The reporter further investigated and found that, as a rapidly developing emerging industry, the pet funeral industry does face many problems, including the lack of a clear supervisory authority to supervise, the mismatch between store qualifications and actual operations, and the lack of uniform qualification training for pet funeral directors. Lack of uniform reference standards for certification and price.
On the national standards information public service platform sponsored by the National Standards and Technical Evaluation Center of the State Administration for Market Regulation, the reporter searched and found that the key words "pet funeral", "pet cremation", "animal funeral" and "animal cremation", no matter the country Even in the localities, there is no standard provision for the above-mentioned fields.
Subsequently, the reporter consulted the Agriculture and Rural Bureau of Chaoyang District, Beijing on the grounds of "what procedures are needed to establish a pet funeral agency".
Relevant staff told reporters that first, it is necessary to apply for a business license with the market supervision department, and it must indicate that the scope of business is the service of animal harmless treatment.
The harmless treatment of animals will involve the issue of the certificate of animal epidemic prevention conditions.
"Pet funerals are currently not one of the business scope categories registered by the company. It can only show the harmlessness of animals."
The staff member said: "At present, the pet funeral industry in Beijing has not issued this certificate. However, in practice, if the site selection of the harmless treatment equipment of the pet funeral agency meets the relevant regulations, it can also pass the law enforcement inspection."
Gan Yali told reporters that when she was preparing to open the store, she learned that to open a formal pet funeral agency in Chengdu, three certificates are required: a business license, an environmental assessment certificate, and an animal epidemic prevention condition certificate.
The latter two will involve equipment, and only government-approved equipment can apply for these two certificates for approval.
"This also means that no matter whether it is a self-made cremation car or a privately purchased cremator on the market, there is no way to say that it meets the environmental impact assessment or has an animal epidemic prevention certificate." Gan Yali said, in order to avoid risks, she I chose to cooperate with the animal harmless treatment agency established by the local state in Chengdu to "hand over the cremation process to the country", although that means higher costs.
Gan Yali hopes that with the further development of the pet funeral industry in the future, all places will be aware of the qualifications of pet funeral equipment, so that the entire industry will become more standardized and transparent.
For pet funeral directors who do not have corresponding professional qualification certificates and unified vocational skills training, pet funeral agencies can only find out the training regulations on their own.
Li Chao told reporters that Chongmu has established a systematic training process. New recruits will have a three-month training period before entering the job, during which they will impart professional knowledge, service etiquette, and product souvenir information.
Due to the lack of a unified price standard in the industry, the price of pet funerals varies considerably between different stores in different regions.
The reporter located Beijing on a consumer review platform and searched with "pet funeral" as the key word, and found that the top 5 pet funeral agencies ranged from 866 yuan to 1,798 yuan per dog; after locating Shanghai, the top 5 pet funeral agencies The price difference for each dog ranges from 664 yuan to 1900 yuan.
In addition to the basic clean-up, farewell, and cremation process packages, the price difference in the production of derivative pet ashes souvenirs is even greater.
Similar to the production of spar, the price difference is several times as much.
Ouyang of Xuzhou, Jiangsu, once wanted to use pet ashes to make spar souvenirs after pet cremation.
She consulted two pet funeral agencies in Shanghai and Xuzhou and learned that the price of the project differed by more than 2,000 yuan.
The price standards vary, pet funeral directors do not have relevant qualifications and other issues that make some pet owners suspicious and daunted about pet funerals.
Develop relevant service procedures
Strengthen supervision and clean up the market
Disposing of pet remains at will, denying pet owners to watch the entire service on site, giving the ashes of other people's pets to pet owners... During the development of the pet funeral industry, some unscrupulous operators have violated regulations, violated consumers' legal rights and polluted the environment, etc. .
According to Ren Chao, a professor at the School of Economics and Law of East China University of Political Science and Law, one of the important reasons for the emergence of these problems is that the pet funeral service market is in a gray area in my country's legal regulations.
my country only stipulates the harmless treatment of dead animals in the Animal Epidemic Prevention Law. The existing pet funeral service agencies and pet funeral directors have no corresponding provisions to regulate the qualifications, and no standardized qualification certification has been formed yet.
“The unclear regulatory authority is one of the reasons for the lower qualification requirements for service organizations and corresponding personnel in the pet funeral industry.” Ren Chao pointed out that pet funerals may involve multiple government departments such as the agricultural department and market supervision department. Under the circumstances, the regulatory body is unknown, and the unified qualification requirements are even more difficult to talk about; and the low qualification requirements and the lack of standardized qualification certification will inevitably lead to the confusion of the pet funeral industry. In this case, public power is required to intervene and correct deviations. .
Liu Hongyan said that funeral services are specifically regulated by the National Funeral and Interment Management Regulations, but do not involve the adjustment of pet funerals.
Pet funeral is an emerging industry that is gradually extended and developed on the basis of pet grooming. The country currently does not have clear laws and regulations to regulate this specific content. Some places adopt local regulations to provide for the disposal of corpses after the death of pets in order to prevent The pathogen spreads, but it does not involve the content of pet funerals.
From the perspective of improving industry services and promoting the healthy development of the industry, Liu Hongyan puts forward three opinions:
Under the condition of government guidance and mature conditions, the pet industry association or related organizations can be responsible for formulating the "Pet Funeral Service Regulations", and provide relevant knowledge training for personnel and institutions engaged in pet funerals, focusing on the harmless treatment of pet corpses. Prevent the spread of pathogens and environmental pollution;
It is recommended that cities where conditions permit specialize in setting up pet cemeteries to place pet carcasses and ashes.
The establishment of a pet cemetery can not only avoid the disorderly management of animal carcasses or ashes, the hidden dangers of public health safety and the waste of land resources, but also the humanistic care for pet owners and provide them with an emotional memorial place;
Depending on the development of the industry, gradually implement a voluntary application system for pet funeral director qualifications, and pass the strict review and assessment of pet industry associations or organizations, and give qualifications to those who do have relevant service skills, as practitioners to enhance their competitive advantage in the market in accordance with.
"In view of the rapid development of the pet funeral industry in my country, the regulatory authorities must face up to market consumer demand, respect the development of the industry, and timely regulate unreasonable business practices. The development of the pet funeral industry in the future also needs to pay attention to the quality standards of combustion furnaces and the supervision of pollutant discharge standards, pets The land security of the cemetery and the protection of consumer rights and other related issues.” Ren Chao said that the regulatory authorities should formulate and improve the qualification standards for the pet funeral industry to promote the sustainable and healthy development of the pet funeral industry.