Funeral services for animals seek official recognition

The coffin was transported to the memorial service in an expensive "hearse", an Audi A8L sedan. [Photo provided to China Daily]

A guilty secret

"Pets bring happiness and comfort to families," Zhou said. "Their bodies can't simply be dumped in a trash can or buried in a shallow grave. Unfortunately, those are the most common ways many Chinese deal with the bodies of their pets. A lot of people in China still think it's insane to cremate animals, while many people in foreign countries think it's insane not to," he added.

"We used to advertise our services and phone number on the hearse, but we had to stop after several clients protested, saying they didn't want their neighbors and other people to know they were holding a memorial service for their pets. They didn't want it to become a hot topic among their neighbors," he said.

Local antipathy has forced Shiyou to move premises several times after residents expressed displeasure at finding a funeral parlor for pets in their neighborhoods.

"Many Chinese people are still very superstitious about death and don't want a funeral parlor nearby," Zhou said. "Every company offering pet memorial services in China has experienced the same things-protests from the locals, the sudden termination of office contracts and difficulty finding places to build new incinerator plants."

Tang Wenhao, manager of Nanjing Haichang Harmless Treatment Co, which provides environmentally friendly disposal of dead animals, said Nanjing's first pet cemetery was forced to close in April, even though it had only been operating in the Jiangning district for about a month.

"The local land and resources authorities, along with the environmental protection and urban management departments, ordered the company to apply for official approval to use the land as a cemetery and for a nearby incineration plant. It proved impossible to obtain permission," he said.

"I've applied for approval from the local environmental protection authorities, but they said they are unable to process our application unless the Development and Reform Commission registers the pet incineration plant. However, the commission won't register it because the service we offer - pet cremation-doesn't exist according to the law," he added.

"I can't get permission from the land and resources department, either. It's not realistic in China to use land for pet cemeteries because cemeteries for humans are already in short supply," he said.