For pet lovers, beloved pets are like family members and deserve more and better from us. A couple in California, USA, expresses their love for pets vividly. In a corner of their home, there is a table. On the table is a well-preserved Chihuahua skeleton. Under the skeleton is a luxurious fur cushion. Beside it are a custom-made urn and some exquisite decorations. There is also a photo of Chihuahua Shirley on the wall.
According to the hostess, Mari Moore, her beloved dog Shirley died in 2020. Her death was a great blow to her. To commemorate it, they decided to make it into a skeleton specimen, which cost $6500. However, the sad story doesn’t stop there. In January 2024, Mary’s another Chihuahua, Laverne, also died. This time, she decided to express her love in another way. She sent Laverne to a professional institution and planned to make it into an animal specimen. The pose is forever fixed as sleeping on the bed. The whole process takes one year and costs $10000. Before sending it away, she also held a grand funeral and invited 100 friends to attend to jointly mourn Laverne’s dog life. Mary doesn’t care about spending tens of thousands of dollars to hold funerals for two puppies. She said, ‘We have no children. They are my children. Everything is worth it.’ Hoping to be together forever, so freeze-drying into specimens. Pet funerals are currently relatively popular. After beloved pets die, many owners will choose to cremate the bodies and then handle the ashes according to the specifications of ‘human funerals’ and bury them in special pet cemeteries for the owners to visit them in real time. However, the specimen model chosen by Mary is another form of pet funeral and is different from the traditional way of making animal specimens (flaying method and immersion method). The whole process is very complex and takes a long time. Generally speaking, smaller animals need 4-5 months, and larger animals need at least one year. After receiving the animal corpse, the internal organs will be taken out first, and then the body cavity will be filled with fillers such as wood and sewn up. According to the owner’s request, the maker will pose the pet in a specific posture, such as sleeping with eyes closed in the nest or sitting at the door waiting for the owner and so on. After determining the posture, the beloved pet is placed in a vacuum freeze dryer. Removing the moisture in the tissue can ensure that the animal does not rot. This process takes a relatively long time. After the drying is completed, the final step is some finishing work, such as painting the animal with pigments and making some touch-ups in details.In summary, the final product must look identical to when the pet was alive, with a lifelike appearance being the criterion for a qualified ‘product’. Due to the complex process and lengthy duration, this service is quite expensive, typically costing several thousand dollars. The pet above, named Sparky, was turned into a ‘doorman’ after death, sitting at the doorstep every day, waiting for its owner to return, priced at $2500; while the orange cat below, Tango, was made to curl up, looking as if it were asleep, and its owner spent $5000.
Despite the high prices, many pet owners are willing to pay. According to news reports, there is a taxidermist in the United States who specializes in this field and receives a large number of orders each year, but he can only complete 90 animal specimens. In addition to the more common cats and dogs, pet owners also request that animals such as snakes, rats, hedgehogs, and ferrets be made into specimens. Regarding displaying pet specimens at home, public opinion is highly polarized. Pet enthusiasts agree and feel fortunate to have such a service, even though it is expensive, as they can still see their pets every day; while most ordinary people find it too horrifying and believe that this method prevents the small animals from ‘resting in peace’. In fact, similar controversies have always existed throughout the pet funeral industry. In recent years, pet funerals have become very popular, with a variety of services offered by businesses. It is common to see news reports of people spending tens of thousands of dollars on their pets’ funerals. The most exaggerated case I’ve seen was a Thai businessman who held a super luxurious funeral for his pet dog, inviting 60 monks and 80 guests, complete with a custom coffin and a luxurious funeral procession, costing $10,000 for the funeral alone. Some people spend a few hundred to a thousand dollars on cremation and memorial services for their small hamsters. In Japan, insects can also have funerals, and even have their own cemeteries. After the funeral, businesses have also developed many value-added services, with the previously mentioned animal specimen production being just one of them. If you choose cremation, then you need to consider whether you need to bury the pet in a pet cemetery, whether it’s ‘burial’, tree burial, or placing it in a niche. Afterwards, whether you need other memorial items, such as pet felt portraits, bronze statues, pet ashes made into jewelry, etc. In short, as long as you are willing, you can handle the affairs of your pet’s death just like a human funeral, and even with a higher standard. Regarding pet funerals, most people emotionally agree, but they do not understand the ‘human standard’ funeral, thinking it is a waste and unnecessary. An expert’s view I find quite interesting is that it is understandable for humans to hold funerals to express emotions after a pet’s death, and from a health perspective, it is indeed necessary to dispose of the pet’s body uniformly after death.However, it should be done simply. It is not recommended to hold grand and extravagant events by spending a lot of money. Nor is it recommended to establish a special pet cemetery. He believes that doing so not only wastes money but also wastes land.