Dog put to sleep?

Padjo1981

Just wondering what happens after you get a dog put to sleep? Do they keep the body or can you bury the pet yourself?

Sigma Force

Depends what you want to do, if the vet takes it then I believe they are usually sent off to be crimated. A lot of people take the pet home and bury it in the garden or a relatives garden.

kazza90210

there are three options you can take the body home yourself and bury it, you can have your pet group cremated which means you wont get any ashes back or you can have an individual cremation which means in three - four weeks your pets ashes will be returned to you.

the only problem with individual it is very expensive especially if its a large dog, your talking €200 and up. In my experience most people go for group cremation.

hotredhead

When we had our dog put to sleep we were only given the choice of a group cremation(which we went for) or an individual one,receiving the ashes 3 -4wks later.
I was under the impression it is illegal to bury your dog in the garden,maybe I'm wrong.It may be ok with pups but we couldn't have buried our big lab in our back garden.Maybe it's only a city thing.

hotredhead

Cremation is the new route to pet heaven
Isabel Hayes
ALL dogs go to heaven, but an increasing number of Irish dogs are now making their way to the final hunting ground via the pet crematorium. And they're not the only ones. Cats, rabbits and even hamsters and budgies are among the 30 to 40 pets being sent for cremation every week by their grieving owners.

"It's increasing all the time and becoming more and more popular as people are becoming more aware of the options available to them, " said Andrew Byrne, founding chairman of Irish Pet Crematorium, which was set up nearly four years ago in partnership with Cranmore Pet Crematorium in Antrim.

"The option of cremation is dignified. People can understand it and relate it to the cremation of humans, " he added.

Byrne, a practising vet, got the idea of extending the pet cremation business to the Republic after spending some time in the UK. "When I came back to Ireland and discovered pet owners had no option but to put their dead pets in landfills, I thought it was awful, " he remembered.

Pet cremation has proved popular with Irish pet owners.

The days of burying the dog in the back garden are long gone (it is now illegal). So too are the short-lived heady days of pet cemeteries: Kilmolin pet cemetery in Wicklow now sees just one burial a month.

"It's not commercial anymore, " said a spokesman for the cemetery. "They all go up North now for cremation and people get a little ornament out of it."

Pet owners availing of cremation are offered the choice of an urn or a casket, ranging from a traditional wooden casket to a handcarved ornament of a cat, dog, or rabbit, with the ashes inside.

Cremations vary in price from 115 for a cat to 170 for a large dog. Owners who don't want the ashes returned can also avail of a group cremation, where a number of animals are done together. This ranges from 16 to 55.

Over the years, Colette O'Toole (36) from Ashford, Co Wicklow has had two dogs and two cats cremated and sent back in four cat-shaped caskets (she didn't like the dog-shaped ornaments). One cat, Geiger, who died after falling out of a window, always used to sit on the stairs. These days he still does.

"I thought putting it on the stairs might upset me, " said Colette. "It had the opposite effect and it was a comfort."

Irish Pet Crematorium is seeking planning permission for a crematorium in the Republic, but all pets are currently cremated in Antrim.

Owners are not allowed to accompany their pets, putting paid to any romantic notions of cremation ceremonies.

Instead, regulations dictate that the cremation must be organised through a vet.

According to Mark Beesley, of the the ISPCA, pet bereavement is increasing in Ireland.

"There's more disposable income and people want to do more for their pets, " he said. Or 'companion animals', to use the new politically correct term for pets.

O'Toole agreed: "When people die, you have all the memories and the things they gave you over the years. You don't have that with an animal. It's lovely to get their ashes; it's something of them back to you."
July 17, 2005

hotredhead

Sorry that link was the Sunday Tribune.I'm not sure how to link/reference it.

Jules

No its not illegal to bury your pet on your own property. I rang the CC on this and they said as long as it is private property there is no issue.

We always give the three options, but i think that it is nicer to have them cremated by themselves and have their ashes back. They do some lovely boxes these days, really pretty.

Lauragoesmad

We had the vet come to our house to put our dog, Cara to sleep. I did not want her to be in a strange place when she passed. We then buried her in our garden in a coffin that my Dad made. The thought of handing her over to someone afterwards nearly broke my heart so I made sure she never left the house.
If you are getting your dogs PTS, pay the extra for the sedative beforehand. It is worth it.