we had a gentleman the other day who
came to us with his rabbit who he'd
actually kept for two years frozen he
actually wanted to make something from
the skin hello there I'm Kevin I am a
Petro mater
I run a individual pet crematorium
called dignity based in Hampshire and
here helping me today I've got my lovely
dog Brax cremating a pet isn't about
flames
it's about sheer heat so our pet
creators the chambers themselves run to
about eight nine hundred degrees
centigrade that can go higher and what
happens is the the body of the animal is
reduced down to their skeletal remains
so when you open the chamber at the end
of the cremation what you see is
actually the calcified bones of the pet
and they're withdrawn and taken out and
then there's another process called
cremulator not many people know about
and that's the process where the bones
are reduced down into the ashes form
that people get back
doing what I do I've been in tears more
times than I care to remember when
you're in a room and you've got people
who's got a much loved family dog cat
rat hamster whatever it is they're part
of the family and so you feel their
emotion
although professionally maybe I
shouldn't break down in tears I have
done quite a few times because you feel
for them we had a lovely pig called
George we've had a military goat here
who was actually in a regiment and he
wasn't just like an animal it was
actually had a rank so we can have
people that have rats hamsters guinea
pig snakes iguanas bearded dragons you
know all sorts of animals I have people
who come along from all walks of life
you know film stars Olympic athletes
members of parliament all sorts of
people one of the things that's coming
more and more about is people having a
tattoo done and that can be of the pet
paw print and some of those people even
have the ink impregnated with the ashes
of the pet so when they have the tattoo
it actually contains some of their pets
ashes one of the things that people have
more recently been asking for is to be
cremated here now unfortunately I can't
cremate people here however what I can
do is have their ashes here so we've now
got several humans as well as my mum and
dad whose ashes are now here with their
animals in our gardens and that's
something we're getting increasing
inquiries for where people are reserving
a spot for when they die so they can
come here with their animals
I personally feel that there is a spark
of life inside of all of us and inside
of him this boy he is unique you know
I've had loads of different dog and
there's only one Brax so what makes him
unique and I believe that is a spirit
that's inside of him and when we guy
that moves on as well as the physical
cremation part here we actually have a
spiritual medium that comes here every
few months and he does like a spiritual
staircase if you like and he comes and
helps them move on any any animals that
have got stuck here and certainly by his
account but there are animals all around
so hopefully right now we've got some
around us he probably if there are
spirits around us he'll know about it
saying that he loves it here so I don't
think it's a problem for him for me the
hardest ever time and I had to cremate a
pet with my dog Mikey thank you and that
was really hard and I sat on the grass
and cried for about half an hour
afterwards and yeah it was really really
difficult and it reminded me why I do
this
we had a gentleman the other day who
came to us with his rabbit who he'd
actually kept for two years frozen he
actually wanted to make something from
the skin he'd already removed the skin
from the pet and then after the event
was actually going to get the ashes and
get them made into bone china and create
something from his pets ashes personally
not my cup of tea at all but it's what
he wanted to do
if one piece of advice comes out of this
today it would actually be you know
don't be afraid of planning stuff in
advance if you've got a favorite song
you might want to a pink coffin you
might want trumpeters outside you might
want to motorbike curse whatever you
want put those things down in writing
put it with your will if you have one
and if you haven't got a will make one
and just prepare so your nearest and
dearest they'll know and it will take a
weight off their shoulders