China News Service, Xi'an, April 5th (Mei Yinglong and Li Yifan) "Pets are friends of human beings. They spend their whole lives with their owners. After death, more and more pet owners also choose to use more commemorative items. Funeral and remembrance in the way of funeral and memory." Wang Long, head of Xi'an Dada Pet Life Memorial Museum, told reporters recently.
It is understood that Wang Long founded the Xi’an Dada Pet Life Memorial Hall (hereinafter referred to as the Memorial Hall) in 2016. The reporter saw in the memorial hall that many photos of deceased pets were displayed on the walls, and exquisite and small pets were displayed in the window. Special pet urns, as well as pendants, rings and handicrafts made from pet ashes through special processing.
The picture shows Wang Long being interviewed by a reporter from Chinanews.com.
Photo by Mei Yutaki
In recent years, more and more people choose to keep pets to add interest in life, relieve stress, relieve loneliness, etc., and pets can often bring people's spiritual healing and spiritual companionship, and many pet owners regard them as "family members" , and invest a lot of time and money.
According to the "White Paper on China's Pet Consumption Trends in 2021" released by iResearch, the market size in 2020 is close to 300 billion yuan. It is expected that the pet industry will continue to grow in the next three years, and the industry scale will reach 445.6 billion yuan by 2023.
With the expansion of the pet market, how to take care of pets "behind the scenes" and send away "family members" decently has become a "trouble" for many pet owners, which has spawned the rise of the pet funeral industry.
According to Wang Long, he has held thousands of "farewell ceremonies" for deceased pets, including cats, dogs, hamsters, etc., in the six years since he founded the memorial hall.
In terms of service content, it provides body cleaning, cremation, storage of ashes, and commemorative handicraft production, etc., and also provides services of public welfare nature for stray animals in the city.
The picture shows pet ashes "avatar" trinkets.
Photo by Mei Yutaki
The emergence of the pet funeral industry has made the "behind events" of pets more diversified, and has been recognized by the market.
"I have learned about the pet funeral industry, mainly to inspect the 'next stop' for the 'pudding' in advance. Because it has been with me for more than ten years, it has become like a 'relative', and I hope its 'post-mortem' can be more decent ." Li Jiang, a citizen of Xi'an, said that in the future, after the dog "pudding" leaves, his hair will be made into handicrafts and will accompany him forever.
But some pet owners are taking a wait-and-see attitude towards the industry.
"Post-90s" Yang Fan is a pet lover who has been with "Fat Dun" for 11 years.
Yang Fan said that the form of pet burial is still unacceptable at present, and he hopes that his dog can leave the world "completely" in the future, but he will continue to pay attention to the pet burial industry.
The picture shows the pet urn.
Photo by Mei Yutaki
Tomb-sweeping day is approaching, the reporter saw at Wang Long's memorial hall that some pet owners who deposited their pet ashes in the memorial hall came to pay their respects to their "loved pets" one after another.
"Here you can cry out loud, or you can think quietly and realize the true meaning of life." Tian Fan, who was remembering his old pet at the scene, said that he would come here to "visit" his deceased pet every year before and after the Qingming Festival, and accompany him quietly. It, share the present life with it.
It is reported that although the pet funeral industry is gradually emerging, it is also facing many development "dilemmas".
According to industry insiders, at present, there are no relevant laws and regulations in the industry, and market supervision is in a "gray area", resulting in an endless stream of phenomena such as non-standard industry and opaque operations.
Wang Xiaoyong, an expert from the Shaanxi Academy of Social Sciences, said that the market should guard against misguided consumption caused by excessive publicity by taking advantage of pet owners' "loving pets".
The society should pay attention to and help create a good and healthy atmosphere in the pet funeral market, and at the same time pay attention to the ethical "proportion" between humans and animals.
It is suggested that relevant market supervision departments should also pay attention to the rapid growth of consumer demand and conduct correct guidance.
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