26 Oct What is the Difference Between Individual and Communal Pet Cremation?
When a pet dies, you might be too overwhelmed or heartbroken to consider what is going to happen next. But once you’ve brought your pet’s remains to the vet, you need to decide what to do. Cremation is the most popular option for taking care of your pet’s body, but you need to decide between individual and communal pet cremation. Since most people don’t work with dead animals, they likely don’t know what the difference between the two options is. So it is important that you go in informed. Otherwise, you might not get the results you want.
Individual Cremation
Individual cremation is often used interchangeably with the term “private cremation”. Essentially, both of these terms mean that your pet will be cremated alone. This could be literal, with your pet being the only one in the crematorium. This option is less common than communal cremation, but it’s the way to go if you want to keep your pet’s ashes afterward. Talk to your vet and make sure that they offer both individual and communal pet cremation.
Communal Cremation
This is the most popular type of pet cremation. In a communal cremation, multiple bodies are put into the crematorium at the same time. This is a practical process that saves time and energy when there are a lot of pets to cremate. However, it is also deeply impersonal. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean that the ashes will be all mixed together. If you want to keep your pet’s ashes in an urn at home, make sure that your vet does not plan on using communal cremation. Otherwise, this will be impossible.
Selecting between individual and communal pet cremation comes down to your preferences and the availability of the process you wish to use. If you choose a communal cremation, you’ll likely be able to go to most animal hospitals for it. Individual cremation might be a little less common, but you can still find somewhere that will do it for you. The choice all depends on what you want to do with your pet’s remains after they die.