History of Dignity Pet Crematorium

The Spurgeon Family Move In

Barry and Carole moved into Brickfields as their new family home in March 1988. The site was steeped in history having been a working brickyard for many years, making bricks and tiles that were used to build Winchfield railway station and Hospital amongst other buildings. The site then became a prisoner of war camp where 40 Italians and Germans POW’s were held during WW2. During the war several huts were dotted around the grounds and the Kiln was used as a chapel; however when Barry & Carole moved to Brickfields only the Guard House and Brick Kiln remained intact.

Barry’s Idea Followed a Shocking Discovery

Over the next few months Barry and Carole tried to think of different uses for the building. They then watched a TV programme on what happened to deceased pets when they were left at the vet. They were shocked to see family pets being taken out of chest freezers in bags and thrown into vans like rubbish alongside the clinical waste generated by the vets during the week. There was no respect or dignified handling of the bodies and what they saw really upset them as, over the years, they had left their own pets at the vet to be “looked after” without knowing what really happened.

At the time they had an elderly German Shepherd called Brutus and they decided that they would never leave him to be “processed” like the poor pets they saw in the TV programme. Barry, a fashion agent, felt so strongly about the subject that he investigated into starting his own pet crematorium. After extensive research of both human and pet crematoriums he approached the local planning department and explained his idea of starting an individual crematorium for family pets. He met with mixed reactions from some of the counsellors as it was an unknown service at the time however he gained their support and planning permission was subsequently granted.

The Changing Face of Pet Cremation

As more people asked for individual cremations the disposal companies started promoting their ashes back services (a much more basic service than Dignity’s where pets would receive no special handling, would be collected with clinical waste and the owner would receive some ashes back a week or two later). They promoted this service to the vets as part of a “complete package” for the practice (I.E. they offered ashes back, communal cremation & removal of clinical waste).

In more recent years, with large disposal companies fighting for veterinary contracts, these companies began promoting their pet cremation services on the basis they could offer a very low cost price to the vet, who they then encouraged to uplift the cost by £100+ to make an easy and substantial profit from the pet owner for “arranging” their pet’s cremation.

This has led to most vets now contracting to the cheapest (and not necessarily the best) companies for pet cremation. Owners are rarely given a full description of the service on offer prior to being sold the cremation and most vets have never inspected the facility they use (and if they have they may not know what to look for to ensure the correct working procedures are in place to guarantee the pet cremation service is operated to an acceptable standard).

Thank You

We are indebted to all the loyal vets that have given owners a choice as well as the wonderful pet lovers that have supported us over the years by telling friends and relatives about us – without them we wouldn’t be here today.