Boom times for Fido’s last rites

last updated 8 January 2015

Life is good these days for the owners of pet funeral homes, said Eric Spitznagel in Bloomberg Businessweek. Pet funerals were rare a decade ago, but today the industry is “growing by leaps and bounds,” with some 700 funeral homes, crematories, and cemeteries nationwide. “If you’re in this business right now,” said Tom Flynn, president of a pet funeral home in Pennsylvania, “you’re just sailing with the wind right at your back.” Bob Walczyk, who owns funeral homes for both humans and pets in Green Bay, Wis., said his pet funeral sales have risen by a staggering 524 percent since 2003, and that pet owners’ devotion often knows no bounds. When “I tell them how much it is to cremate their grandfather, it’s never cheap enough,” he said. “But when the exact same family brings their dog next door, they don’t even ask about money.”