Flower beds, passing blankets, memorial walls, paw print memorial boxes… At the scene of a ‘pet memorial service’ arranged by pet funeral institutions, a decent farewell ceremony is carried out in this way.
In recent years, the market’s demand for pets has become increasingly comprehensive and in-depth. In addition to basic consumption such as ‘food, clothing, housing and transportation’, anthropomorphic services are also expanding more and more widely, and have extended to pet funerals, the ‘end of life’. According to Tianyancha data, as of March 2024, there are nearly 6,000 pet funeral-related enterprises nationwide, and more than 5,000 of them have been established in the past five years.
Searching for keywords such as ‘pet hair collection’ and ‘pet teeth processing’ on Taobao, most of the obtained products are priced between dozens of yuan and several hundred yuan, and rarely exceed one thousand yuan. Taking pet teeth commemorative jewelry as an example, simply preserving teeth only requires a simple storage container. For contemporary pet owners, jewelry with a sense of design is more popular.
Rose, the person in charge of pet customized jewelry Tomorrow do, introduced that the monthly sales volume of pet jewelry in her store is close to 50 orders. The most popular are moon pendants and snow mountain rings, with prices ranging from 380 yuan to 700 yuan. In addition, some pet owners also have the need for private customization. ‘Private customized styles are designs that are not available in the store and are designed according to customer requirements. However, not all designs for teeth can be done because the stability and aesthetics of inlaid teeth need to be considered. Some customers have asked about customization with ashes or hair, but silver jewelry cannot be combined with ashes or hair because the texture is unstable. For example, hair is too soft and ashes are easily crushed.’ Rose said that the customization price is charged according to the complexity. The price starts at 500 yuan. In terms of cost proportion, Rose bluntly said that the cost of materials is actually not high. ‘The price of silver is very transparent. The price is mainly determined by the complexity of design and manual time. Especially since the brand was founded by me alone. From copywriting, taking photos, retouching, managing Taobao stores and accounts on various platforms, as well as design and handmade production are all done by me alone. Some model pictures are taken by myself while wearing and showing them. So the pricing will not be particularly low.’ Rose said. As in the case of pet cremation, although the pet commemorative industry is becoming increasingly popular, many problems such as the lack of industry norms, mismatches between market demand and talent supply also follow. Rose revealed, ‘There are already many acts of plagiarism in the design industry. Now this phenomenon has also appeared in pet customized jewelry, which leads to more intense competition and increasingly lower prices. Many consumers may choose plagiarizers with lower prices, but the workmanship of plagiarism will not be very delicate. As for whether they care about consumers’ pet teeth, it’s hard to say. Because they are all unwilling to spend time on making their own original designs, and they may not be very serious about other people’s meaningful things. ‘ Not long ago, the news that musician Bao Xiaobai used AI to ‘resurrect’ his deceased daughter made people see the possibility of the emergence of ‘digital life’. And using AI can also make pets ‘live forever’ in the digital world and interact with pet owners through intelligent dialogue. In addition, some pet owners will choose to use cloning technology to let their beloved pets’return’.It is known that currently, the price of cloned pets generally ranges from 200,000 to 250,000 yuan. The specific charging standard is related to the pet’s size. Usually, cloning a pet requires taking a small piece of skin from the cloned pet for somatic cell culture. Then, an egg cell is taken from a female. After fusing with the somatic cells of the cloned pet, it is placed in the mother’s uterus to develop into an embryo until birth.
The whole process takes about a year. Compared to various pet souvenirs and pet’resurrection’ methods, properly burying pets is the choice of most people. And the domestic funeral industry is just starting. According to data predictions from iResearch, the pet economy market scale will exceed 440 billion yuan in 2023. However, the penetration rate of pet funerals is only 1%. Pet funeral institutions are mainly concentrated in first- and second-tier cities. In contrast, the pet funeral industry in countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, and Russia has developed relatively maturely. The ‘Analysis and Investment Prospect Research Report on the Development Trends of China’s Pet Funeral Market’ points out that in addition to basic funeral services, Cambridge Pet Crematorium in the United Kingdom has also formed a relatively mature online service system. It not only developed an online virtual pet cemetery but also has a dedicated hotline for expressing grief. Japan has temples dedicated to pet services, providing services such as chanting sutras to the souls of pets. Russia has comprehensive laws on handling animal corpses: after a pet dies, it can enter a special cemetery with an area of about 2 hectares. Direct burial of pet remains or discarding the body in a trash can is strictly prohibited. In contrast, China’s pet funeral industry is just starting. In terms of legislation related to handling deceased pets, only the ‘Animal Epidemic Prevention Law’ officially promulgated in 2021 states that after an animal dies, it should be harmlessly disposed of in accordance with regulations. Although some people may think holding funerals and buying graves for pets is’making a mountain out of a molehill’, there are not a few pet owners who are willing to spend money to hold a farewell ceremony for their pets. After the hairless cat ‘Little Strawberry’ died of heart disease, its owner Mao Mao bought a body cremation package for it. ‘At that time, I didn’t know much about the services of pet funeral institutions. The hospital recommended one nearby. This one doesn’t require an appointment. I looked at the included items and prices and accepted it without any major problems.’ After comparing the package services of some pet funeral institutions, it is found that the pet funeral service process usually includes cremation, farewell ceremony, body cleaning, blessing and other contents. If there are plans such as body freezing or customized flower funeral, the price will be higher. In addition, some enterprises on the market have begun to try to use technological means to improve service quality. For example, using VR technology to simulate mourning ceremonies so that pet owners can say goodbye to their deceased pets in a virtual environment, or using 3D printing technology to make pet ashes statues.Compared to other options, cremation remains the primary service offered by pet funeral institutions. After deciding to opt for pet funeral services, pet owners must first provide detailed information to schedule the service, and then select an appropriate funeral package based on the pet’s size, owner’s needs, and financial considerations. According to Xiao Mao’s recollection, after arranging for the funeral institution for ‘Little Strawberry’, a dedicated vehicle was dispatched to collect ‘Little Strawberry’s’ body.
‘When contacting over the phone, they indicated that if the pet passed away due to infectious diseases, an additional fee for vehicle disinfection would be required. Upon arrival at the crematorium, a funeral director helped trim the nails, wiped the body several times, and stuffed some cotton into ‘Little Strawberry’s’ mouth, claiming it would prevent fluid leakage and improve the appearance of the remains. After all the preparations were completed, they dressed the pet in the small clothes I had prepared.’ After the cleaning, Xiao Mao bid a final farewell to ‘Little Strawberry’, and the funeral institution kept hair and paw prints as a memento, and then arranged for the cremation. ‘At that time, the institution provided me with several options for ashes storage, including basic urn storage, personalized custom urns, and the option to add money to bury the ashes in a potted plant to create a Tree of Life. In the end, I chose a custom-designed urn.’ In this simple funeral ceremony, Xiao Mao spent nearly 1000 yuan on ‘Little Strawberry’, but Xiao Mao felt it was ‘worth it’: ‘On one hand, it handled the aftermath in a more decent and formal manner. More importantly, ‘Little Strawberry’s’ ashes were preserved. Later, I found a glassworking studio and sealed some of the ashes into this heart-shaped glass, hoping that in the next life, it could have a healthy heart. ‘ More and more pet owners are willing to spend on pet funerals, like Xiao Mao. The People’s Daily Public Opinion Data Center pointed out that in Beijing, about 220,000 pets pass away each year, and 9.4% of pet owners choose to cremate their beloved pets. However, the surging market demand and the severe imbalance in industry development, coupled with the lack of relevant regulations, directly lead to the imbalanced development of the pet funeral industry: high pricing, non-transparent service items, and fraudulent and illegal operations are all negative labels that the pet funeral industry cannot shake off. Norah, the person in charge of the pet funeral institution ‘Rainbow Paw Prints’, said that the final arrangements for pets vary in price because of differences in processes and service items. For instance, individual cremation is charged based on the pet’s weight, with a cremation price of 399 yuan for pets weighing up to 5 jin, and a cremation price of 1999 yuan for pets weighing over 85 jin. The price situation of pet funeral services was investigated on Meituan and Dianping.Results show that in first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, the single charge for pet funeral services generally ranges from 600 to 2,000 yuan. However, some services with special items can cost as much as tens of thousands of yuan. According to Norah, a regular pet funeral institution needs to obtain an incineration permit and pass environmental assessment and fire inspection.
Most pet crematoriums are built in remote areas on the periphery of cities. They are equipped with multiple sets of large, medium, and small cremation furnaces to meet the needs of most pet owners and ensure that pets as small as hamsters, lizards, sparrows and as large as Great Danes weighing over 200 pounds and pet pigs can all receive services. The price of a set of cremation furnaces varies from 200,000 to 500,000 yuan. Powerful funeral institutions will also purchase more advanced special cremation furnaces and adopt multi-nozzle ignition to ensure a more efficient and environmentally friendly cremation process. However, due to lack of supervision, some irregular pet funeral institutions will choose to burn pet remains with low-priced cremation furnaces in remote places on their own or put cremation equipment directly on vehicles for mobile cremation. In addition, there is also a phenomenon that institutions charge according to the price of independent cremation but cremate multiple pet remains together. ‘Because the cost of regular cremation is not cheap, there is also the phenomenon of false incineration.’ Norah revealed that some unscrupulous merchants do not provide cremation services at all and directly discard pet remains to save costs. The most common characteristic of these irregular pet funeral institutions is that on-site viewing is not allowed. In order to pursue huge profits, some small-scale private pet funeral institutions will also set high charging standards, have opaque service items, and even adopt unlicensed incineration and false operations, and privately set up cremation furnaces to avoid supervision. Only as a new industry facing growing demand, the current chaos in the pet funeral industry has not attracted the attention of consumers. When more pet owners choose this service, they often base it on emotional factors and do not pursue too much about price and service quality. In addition to funeral services, the related commemorative industries derived from the pet funeral industry are also gradually increasing under the background of people’s increasingly diversified needs. Whether it is the pet funeral industry or the related industries derived from it, their development means the birth of new opportunities. When we talk about pet funeral and related fields, what cannot be ignored is the characteristic of its niche market. In this niche market, consumers’ considerations of factors such as service quality and price may lead to market segmentation and differentiation. The actual experience of pet owners also determines whether this emerging market can become stronger and larger one day. When pet owners learn to say goodbye to their beloved pets through various pet funeral services, practitioners should also clearly understand that their value is to provide a decent farewell for pets and owners.How to define rational norms for emotional consumption and not over-consume the emotional needs of pet owners is the most important issue in this industry.