When a pet is dying, many people reach out to their veterinarian one last time. By default, many vets double as undertakers, passing on a pet’s body to a regional crematorium that accepts animal remains. The owner pays the vet a fee for the arrangements, and the crematorium may return the remains in a small urn, an unassuming memorial to a lost companion.
Pet cremation has been common in the United States for decades now: Some of the first dedicated facilities popped up in the 1970s and ’80s as the practice slowly gained purchase among humans. Since then, cremation has




