Do not need an answer fast!
But I was just thinking about it last night: If a large dog dies, and you live in an average home without a lot of land,do you just bury it in the backyard? Isn’t there an issue with it smelling as it rots? I know you can have the vet take care of it, but that involves significant costs.
I’ve had my last two dogs (Goldens) cremated. They’re in little boxes on my shelf.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot this weekend, as my boy Dane got a sock jammed in his intestines and is still in the hospital recovering from surgery. I’m not ready for a third box in the set yet. (May never be, with this one.)
Generally, if you bury a small to medium sized pet (up to maybe 50 pounds) deep enough - 2-3 feet - it’s a non problem. You will get some subsidence as the body decomposes.
Harvey is in a little urn similar to this one (without the god accent) on a shelf in the living room.
Most of mine have been cremated, except the horses of course. Those I was lucky enough to have land (or in one case friends w/ land) on which to bury them.
If an animal dies at the vet’s office you usually have the choice to bring the body home with you to bury, or they will dispose of the remains for you. My vets have always also offered a cremation service (through an outside business generally) and that’s what I’ve done. I would imagine that if you and your pet have been regular clients at a particular vet’s office, and your furry friend dies at home but you can’t or don’t want to bury her/him, you could bring the body to vet office to be disposed of. They’re all cremated, but if you want the cremains back you have to arrange ahead of time.
And yes to the urns. It was a little ummm… sobering to pack them all up when we moved recently. Urns in various places is one thing. Gathered all together in a box labeled “pets”? Ohdeargawd I’m one of “those” people :eek:
When nature takes its course I bury my deceased cats in the rose garden. Each cat has his own rose bush and when they bloom its like a message from them from Heaven.
I planted one cat under a John F Kennedy tea rose (white) and one year it bloomed red instead of white! :eek:
My neighbour’s cat died, and she decided to bury it at her cottage. But she couldn’t get it to the cottage anytime soon, so she bought a freezer and put the dead cat in the freezer. Her brother’s cat died and she put it in the freezer too. And I heard that she didn’t even need the freezer for food - she’d bought it just to store dead cats.
My family loves cats, but we still joke about the dead cats in the freezer.
Well… I still have the skull of one of our pet dogs… We buried it in the back field (ten acres of land) and waited for nature to do most of the work. A couple of months later, we dug it up and soaked it in bleach and water a while.
A taxidermist might do this for you professionally, and the results would be nicer. Whiter, cleaner bone, etc. Pricey. A friend of mine sent his cat’s carcass to a place and now has the skull. He wanted to full skeleton, but it was too expensive.
As for just disposing of the remains, yeah, bury it good and deep and you’ll be okay. It might be against some zoning law, or, worse, it might fall under some catch-all law (“improper disposal of chemicals” or “illegal burial of wastes”) which an avid enforcement official could use selectively. A pushy neighbor might report it, or even file suit. Life is uncertain…and even death is, too.
XD :D:p
There was the Minnesota Winter of freezer rodents - guinea pigs, rats and hamsters. They all died one Winter and you don’t bury PEOPLE in Minnesota in the Winter. So I had them in boxes in the freezer.
In my area, we have a person who will bury the body in his land for a small fee. No stone, no marker, and I have never visited his land to check up. But the local vet offers this option, and I have used it.
Otherwise, dig a hole. Hopefully, your pet doesn’t die in the dead of winter.
My uncle once taught an anatomy class, and had a big pot of cat skulls boiling on the stove. They were to be assigned to the students for dissection and study.
The gardener came in, took one look, and slowly…slowly…walked out of the room.
Sadly, I had to do this recently. My rabbit Mosby died just before Christmas. I rent and we live in town, and I didn’t want to go digging in the backyard because I’d probably cut through the gas line or something. So I took him to the vet. They’re always very nice about it, because they know this is a hard time for people. That makes it a little bit less horrible.
I miss the little guy. 
Bury in a flower garden…make a new one if you dont have one and plant the seeds.
My brother lives on a couple of acres in the Mojave desert, and keeps horses. One of them died on a Friday afternoon, and normally he would call a renderer to pick it up, but it was too late and they couldn’t come until Monday. It was already summer, with temps in the 100’s, and a horse carcass wouldn’t keep in that heat.
So he called his buddy with a backhoe, who dug a trench, and dragged the carcass in. The horse landed on its back, with its hooves pointing up, only about a foot below the surface. Anyone in the future with a metal detector is going to have a surprise when they try to dig up those four horseshoes.
Well I’ve had to bury a lot of animals, but nothing bigger than a sheep (yes, I am from Idaho). Never had a problem with odors or toxic gasses and such, but you’ll want to bury it at least 2 feet deep for small animals – deeper for anything bigger than a possum. That can be tough work if the ground is frozen or very hard packed or dense wet clay, and tree and plant roots can be especially frustrating.
I’m going to have a hard time getting a picture of that out of my head. LOL.
I have three cats, two of whom are elderly. I am going to have a chat with my vet about what people hereabouts do in this situation. My ex has buried several pets in his yard. This doesn’t appeal to me. I’d rather do cremation if it’s not a fish. Fish definitely go in the garden.
Unless you’re burying a really enormous dog, three feet deep will be plenty. Plant something nice on top. My folks have a giant pampas grass on top of my childhood dog right next to the deck, and the tufts are nine feet tall in the summer. Dog makes good fertilizer, I guess.
Or you pre-dig the hole in the fall and cover it with plywood. We did the fall before my dog died, because 15 was quite old for a dog on the borderline between medium and large. Fortunately she lived until April, but we would’ve been able to de-snow the “plot” if necessary.
I laughed.
Any which, yeah, the pets get buried in the back yard. There is no odor.
We’ve got two little urns with cat cremains. The first cat to go had aggressive cancer, and was euthanized by a home visit vet. We told them we wanted him cremated and returned in an urn. They took the body away, and put us in touch with the pet cremation company. We picked out an urn on their website, paid by credit card, and a few weeks later the urn was delivered to our house. Yes, hand-delivered, not mailed or fed-exed. They called to make sure someone would be home.
Second cat to go died of old age on our living room floor one Monday morning. She had just been seen by our regular vet over the weekend, so I called them to ask what to do. They told us to bring her body to the vets office, they would take care of it. Again, I asked that she be cremated and returned, and they put me in touch with the same pet cremation company. It was a bit easier the second time, since we wanted the same urn as before and they still have us on file. When future cats go to their great reward, we’ll know what to do. And I told my husband, when it’s my time, I want a matching urn, or if he goes first, that’s what he’s getting. 