Regarding the cremation of a cat, is it better to cremate your cat yourself or have it done by a veterinarian? Despite the immense grief over losing your cat, you must take care of the remains of her tiny body. Here are the answers to the questions you should ask yourself about cremating a cat:
- Why cremate your cat?
- Where to cremate your cat?
- How to cremate your cat yourself?
- What is the cost of an incineration?
And at the end of the article, I will give you some advice so that you can say goodbye to your cat, overcome this ordeal less painfully and make your bereavement as painless as possible.
Why cremate your cat?
The reasons for choosing the cremation of a cat's body are the same as those for cremating the body of a loved one.
- In fact, cremating your cat is refuse to bury your cat. Why refuse to bury your cat? It is the idea of the decomposition of his body underground that can haunt the spirits.
- In addition, cremation makes it possible to keep your cat's body ashes in your home to keep it as close as possible to you.
- Finally, cremating your cat remains the simplest solution for those who do not have a garden to bury their cat and who do not have the means to bury him in a animated cemeteryalier.
How to cremate your cat?
If you choose to cremate your cat, you will be able to:
- either cremate your cat's body yourself by contacting a crematorium for individual or collective cremation,
- or entrust the remains of your cat to a veterinarian who will take care of all the procedures.
Cremate your cat yourself
When you do not go to a veterinarian, to cremate your cat, you will need to contact an animal crematorium. Generally, crematoriums offer 2 cremation options:
- individually which makes it possible to attend the cremation and to recover the ashes,
- or collective which does not allow to participate in the ceremony or to recover the ashes.
Cat cremation - Individual cremation
Individual cremation takes place in an animal crematorium and, optionally, can be accompanied by a ceremony that you and your loved ones will attend. The advantage of this type of cremation is that you can collect your cat's ashes to keep them in an urn. This urn, you can either bury it in your garden, or keep it at your home or choose to spread the ashes in a place that was dear to your cat.
For the ceremony, you will be offered several options to personalize the time of the farewell. Incineration can take up to 2 hours. At the end, you are given the ashes of your cat with a plate with an identification number. You can buy an urn on site but I advise you to buy it in advance to have a better price. In fact, by ordering on the internet, the prices are almost half the price.
You can also put the ashes or part of the ashes in a pendant that you can keep as close as possible to you ...
Cat cremation - Collective cremation
This cremation option does not allow you to accompany your cat until the end (no ceremony and no ashes returned).
In fact, if you choose a mass cremation, your cat's body is cremated along with other animal remains. A service comes to collect the remains of your cat at your home or at the veterinarian. Your cat's body is placed in a plastic bag in which it will be cremated. The ashes from your cat's body will be mixed with that of other animals and are spread in a place dedicated for this purpose.
Cat cremation price
Prices vary depending on crematoriums, animal funeral services and options chosen. To give you an idea, a collective cremation costs around 60 € (100 € with the transport of the remains) and an individual cremation with ceremony more or less 300 Euros. There are intermediate formulas with individual cremation but without ceremony, the prices of which are around 160 Euros.
Where to cremate your cat?
There is a network of animal crematoriums throughout France which are managed by the market leader Esthima. Specialist in funeral directors for animals, this company gives you the opportunity to say goodbye to your cat by organizing a personalized funeral. To find the animal crematorium closest to you, you can search by department: Cat crematorium list
If you don't want to go through Esthima, you can contact a crematorium yourself from the list provided by 30 million friends: List of cremation centers for cats
Veterinary cat cremation
For those who do not wish to complicate matters, ask their veterinarian to take care of the cremation of their cat and a simple, fast and economical solution. It is the way to alleviate tedious administrative tasks and to free oneself from a chore that can be heavy and painful in this period of mourning.
The invoicing of this service by the veterinarian may seem high but the latter takes care of everything: crematorium contact, cremation agreement, death declaration to the ICAD, transport of the remains, ceremony…. It will simply ask you to choose the type of cremation: individual cremation or collective cremation.
Virtual cemeteries for cats
If you opt for collective cremation, you can still keep the memory of your cat and meditate there by going to a virtual cemetery. In fact, any owner of a pet that has just died can create a digital burial site with messages and photos on this type of site. Depending on the sites and options, these virtual animal cemeteries may be free or may be subject to an annual subscription. See for example: lecimetiere-animalier.net
On the other hand, The 30 Million Friends Foundation has opened a virtual space on its site to pay tribute to its deceased cat. This free community site in-memory-of-my-friend.fr offers you to create a tribute page dedicated to your cat and to publish photos there. It is a way to help you overcome your sadness and your pain, especially with the messages of support left by other members of the community.