It is alleged that operators of a pet crematorium in the UK faked cremations. They sent the ashes of other animals to the owners and simultaneously dumping their dogs and cats in a freezer. We don’t know what happened to the cats and dogs in the freezer but I’d bet my bottom dollar that they were picked up by a man in a van acting as a dealer, selling the carcasses on to a pet food manufacturer or something equally sordid.
One cat owning woman was given the ashes of a horse.
The pet crematorium under investigation by the local authorities for faked cremations is The Swan Pit Crematorium in Gnossal, Staffordshire. To international visitors to PoC, this is in the north of England.
The owner of the crematorium, Allan McMasters has yet to make a comment about the allegations.
Are you surprised? I’m not. I would be very confident in saying that what has allegedly happened here, happens in other pet crematoriums across the country and probably in other countries too.
Historically, when I have requested an individual cat cremation I have attended in person supervised it to ensure that the ashes are those of my cat.
However disreputable the alleged behaviour is, it is ironic that the ashes of pets do not have any trace of the pet. Ashes are ashes. They contain no DNA or any marker which distinguishes one set of ashes from another, as I understand it.
Therefore to have a cat individually cremated, as I have done in the past, is an emotional exercise. It is not logical or scientific. I don’t have my long passed cats in my living room in an urn. I just have a substance made up of mainly metal oxides. Fortunately, I also have some of Charlie’s whiskers (taken by the vet) and some of his hair that I had groomed off him over a long period.
The top five substances in pet ashes are¹:
- Phosphate 47.5%
- Calcium 25.3%
- Sulfate (Sulphate) 11.00%
- Potassium 3.69%
- Sodium 1.12%
So there you are. It is all rather strange and unreal because what the fake cremations are intended to do it not give the ashes of a particular pet to their owner but the ashes of an individual cat, let’s say, are no different from the ashes of another individual cat. At a scientific level there is no fraud.
Source (1): Gayle E. O’Neill, PhD. TEI Analytical, Inc. Niles, Illinois.
I wish that someone would explain how keeping the ashes of our beloved cats in urns would have a positive affect on our psyche. What is the mindset? Does it indicate that we still need to have them close? That we can’t let go of them? Do we believe that they are there in the ash?
It’s very confusing to me.
Michele, thanks for the info about the pet food industry. I am not sure the regulations are that well enforced or monitored. I have probably become a cynical conspiratory theorist 😉 . I imagine all kinds of possibilities that don’t exist. Why do you think the bodies were in a freezer? He could have just dumped them in a black bag immediately. I suppose the savings in this scam are made in not using gas for the oven.
It is too easy to fake it because people don’t watch the process. I actually watched my Binnie being put in the oven and the door closed and the oven started. Sounds horrible. It was horrible but I know I have her ashes.
The burial place of your pets sounds beautiful. A fine place to be buried. You are lucky.
I have buried all my pets close to my house on the sea facing beach.My oldest pet, 22 year old Alexandrine parakeet :Mittoo” lies in a glass showcase thanks to the art of taxidermy.All my departed pets are “LIVE” on “Youtube video’s” and “Photographs” always refreshing my memories when i turn nostalgic.This is horrible news that “Pets Ashes” are being counterfeited in some crematoriums in the U.K which shows the sentiments that normal humans attach to other peoples pets.
I’m not surprised to read this. In October 2013, the tv show “Fake Britain” reported two UK pet crematoriums operating similar scams. Most of the bodies were either dumped in nearby fields or burnt on a bonfire;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evdPR2AuI3w
Its so low to rip-off bereaved people, knowing that they are especially vulnerable at the time. Hope this guy ends up in prison for fraud.
Michael: The British pet food industry is quite strictly regulated and they have use to animals which have been passed as fit for human consumption. They also tend to use only animals considered acceptable in the human food chain – hence no horse meat etc., in British pet foods.
I’m not sure what to write, because I don’t really understand what the purpose in having our beloved cats cremated and keeping their ashes. I can understand the cremation and, possibly, scattering their ashes in one of their favorite places. But, to keep ashes in an urn baffles me. There must be some emotional connection that I can’t think of.