Not in my backyard: Pet cremation services face community backlash

Many people love their cats and dogs, but they draw the line at the residue of pet cremations littering their neighborhoods.

Residents of a compound in Songjiang District were up in arms after discovering that a pet funeral parlor on the first floor of a nearby building was cremating pets in a truck parked at a clearing outside, leaving some ashes and bone remnants strewn on the ground.

"I knew about the funeral parlor for pets," said Lily Chang, a stay-at-home mom living in a nearby compound. "But I never knew it would be carrying out cremations in a residential area. Even though it didn't happen in my compound, it's just a few minutes' walk away and that doesn't seem safe or hygienic."

The pet funeral business, named Enchongtang, had to close because of resident complaints, and the owner was out of contact.

Enchongtang is not the only pet funeral parlor operating in residential areas. Also in Songjiang, another parlor named Simu suspended business this week after neighborhood complaints.

"The issue with Enchongtang caught people's attention and we were unfortunately caught up in its wake, so I guess we'll remain low-key for a while, but I don't know for how long," Simu's owner, who asked to remain anonymous, told Shanghai Daily.

Simu opened in late 2023. The venue, like almost all its counterparts in the industry, provided complete funeral process for pets: door-to-door pick-up, a farewell ceremony, cremation and ash disposal.

"In fact, we had stationary cremator, but we switched to a truck to avoid further troubles after complaints arose," he said.

Simu's business certificate says it is allowed to provide "non-hazardous disposal" of dead animals, but another license is required for implementation of the service.

According to Songjiang District agricultural authorities, who are in charge of these matters, no license has ever been issued, so the service is illegal.

"Carrying out such services in residential areas causes potential hazards because we don't know how the pets died," said Wu Zhonghua, director of the law enforcement team of the district's agricultural commission. "If the animals had infectious diseases, such as rabies, it could be problematical."

Pet funeral parlors in residential areas are no strangers to controversy.

In 2022, a parlor in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province, was on the receiving end of repeated complaints because its crematorium was near a primary school and children were subjected to the loud wailing of bereaved pet owners all day.

Similar cases were also reported in Jiangxi and Sichuan provinces.

Apart from their locations and licensing problems, the cost of pet cremation is also the source of frequent complaints.

"It is extremely expensive, and the pricing is often opaque," said Zhang Leili, a white collar worker who lost her 14-year-old cat last year. "The cremation itself cost 600 yuan (US$82), and an urn to hold the ashes was priced at hundreds, sometimes thousands, of yuan."

Zhang said there was no contract signed for the service. She found a parlor, talked with the owner on WeChat and settled the deal online.

"When I went there, they told me that the price we agreed on was for a mass cremation and I had to pay another 500 yuan for an individual cremation," she said. "I don't even know how they decide the prices."

As the number of household pets in China soared from about 58 million in 2020 to nearly 88 million in 2023, the pet funeral has flourished, according to Petdata, an industry analysis firm. An average 3 million pets die every year, and more than 60 percent of their owners choose to give them a proper send-off.

Enterprise credit agency QCC said more than 1,000 pet funeral parlors began business in China within three months late last year.

Regulations and standards haven't kept up with the surging market.

"It has all been so spontaneous," said Bernie Liu, who operates a pet parlor in the Pudong New Area. "With demand so high, consumers will find services and prices more or less the same everywhere."

In Shanghai, there is only one legal public venue for animal cremation. That's the Shanghai Animal Harmless Treatment Center, which has two outlets in the suburban Fengxian and Baoshan districts.

Given the attachment of people and pets, it's reasonable for the public to demand proper regulation of the pet-funeral business so that a sad time for owners doesn't spill over into an angry time for residential communities.