Dogs remains after death

Branoic

Sorry for the morbid post.

We've got a german shepherd who is 7 years old and has had health problems for some years. She's on a cocktail of drugs every day. She's not currently in pain and is still active and happy and alert, but her conditions are getting worse and after a recent vet checkup the inevitable topic finally came up. The vet thinks she'll be okay for some months, though thinks she'll be lucky if she sees next summer, so its early days yet.

She's like our child. We've got two actual human children younger than her and we always joke that she's our firstborn, so its going to be incredibly difficult.

When the time comes my wife wants the vet to do the procedure with a house visit, instead of having to bring her in. That's fine, but then she wants to bury her in our back garden.

I'm not really going for that.

Is it even allowed? I've told her i doubt it is. I mean sure, I've buried pet hamsters and budgies in little boxes in my back garden growing up, but we're talking about a human-sized body here. Our dog is 43 kilos, and she's larger than my wife! I love her as much as my wife does, and i really don't want to be blunt about it, but there must be health and safety regulations about the handling of a body that size?

Hooked

Short answer:
I 'think' the burying is illegal.

As she (like ours) is your first born, then I'd be looking into cremation as a nice way to contain or scatter her ashes.

Think there's one in Kerry and Dublin/Meath.

We've a 4, and soon to be 2 year old. Our furkids. That's how they'll be remembered. Hopefully a good 10 years from now.

Dread the thought of that day...

Niemoj

Sorry to hear that about your furbaby OP, they really are one of the family!

I'm not really sure about burial in a garden, isn't the law that once they're a certain amount underneath it's fine? I'm not sure though.

A relation of mine's dog passed and she'd cancer so burial wasn't an option but they had her creamated and they had this wooden box made that has her name and DOB engraved on it and they've a framed picture of her behind it. It's lovely because she's always there then, you just look over and see her face.

However, she was a small Jack Russell (albeit a tubby one:pac:) and it cost over €200 so the cost would be a fair bit alright for a larger madra so that'd obviously be a factor.

Good luck with whatever you do anyway, I hope she's around for a good while longer yet.

Take care.

Branoic

Thanks for those answers. Yeah cremation might be a good option, I'll look into that.

Sobko

Cremation is a good way to go. Our vets organised individual cremation and we had the ashes mounted behind a picture frame.

DBB

It might help your wife to know that it is possible, at least at the Meath pet crematorium (it's in Trim), you can bring your dog's remains and wait a while to collect them within a short hour or two.
Whilst I was happy to have my last two dogs individually cremated, being separated from their remains for a couple of weeks was kinda hard... Waiting for the call a couple of weeks later isn't nice. Neither is collecting the ashes. It drags the horror of it all out. So, now that I know I can do it all in a day at Trim, this'll be what I'll do next time around. If your wife feels hesitant about cremation for the same reasons, maybe this would help. I personally get comfort from having their ashes nearby, still in our home.
To get back to more mercenary things, it cost €330 to have my GSD individually cremated.
Good luck op.. Hopefully it's still a long way away yet.

kylith

I buried my terriers in the garden. I don't think it's strictly allowed, but if no-one knows then no-one can care. I found it very comforting to have them close to me.

That said, there's a big difference between a 9kg terrier and a 45kg dog. You have to go at least three feet down so it'd be a big hole to dig.

Ziycon

Your are correct to think it's against the law to bury an animal in a residential garden. Cremation is the way to go, most vets will take care of this for you so ask your vet about it, they'll organise it all and let your know when your pets ashes are back in for you to collect, it takes the stress out of having to do it all yourself.

tk123

When our cat died I went for individual cremation and chose a wooden cat box for the ashes which we have on the end of the stairs - one of his favorite lookout spots:o He had deteriorated quickly but enough time for me decide that I needed to step in and end his suffering and that I wanted the ashes back. I didn't want to ask my dad to bury him either as we were all heartbroken?

Like DBB says though - getting the call to say the ashes are back isn't nice both for the owner and whoever is calling from the vets because their heart is breaking for you and it makes it kind of raw again? The same with collecting them - my brother collected Doug's ashes for me because I was too upset but I've been in the vets plenty of times over the years when somebody has called in to get ashes and it very very sad - everyone's is heartbroken.
Hopefully it won't be for a long time but I think I'd rather take him myself and wait for them next time we're in that situation. Whether I'd scatter them or not I don't know.

Poor you OP and your poor dog - I've tears in my eyes now just thinking of being in that situation again!

aonb

I have always buried my dogs in the garden - granted we have over an acre rather than a small suburban garden. I couldnt imagine doing anything else. I love to think that they are at the bottom of the garden...

Hopefully your GSD will manage to keep going for a long while yet, but also sensible to prepare for that dreaded day

DBB

One factor that made me go for individual cremation was that I knew in time I'd be moving from the home we shared with the dogs in question. I could not even countenance leaving them behind, buried in the garden. Neither could I scatter their ashes when it came to the crunch. Neither option sat right with me at all. Now we've moved and they've come with us!
But that's just me... I know different people have different attitudes to death and mortal remains and all that, so some people wouldn't feel it important to hold on to the ashes or be close to the graves as I do, and that's fine too I was absolutely steered by my gut on this decision, and went with what felt right for me.

Gael23

For us cremation was the only choice, yes it was expensive but we didn't consider anything else. To be honest I'm not sure how much it cost, everything happened so quickly that day i never asked- the vet took care of everything and we paid for it together with the treatment bill.
I've seen the frame and I think it's a beautiful idea but it was just too expensive for us at the time. It's almost like a jewellery box with his name on the top. He was a 12kg spaniel having said that so for a large body it may be different.

Irish Stones

DBB wrote: »

being separated from their remains for a couple of weeks was kinda hard... Waiting for the call a couple of weeks later isn't nice. Neither is collecting the ashes.

Why did you have to wait two weeks to collect the ashes?
It can't be a reason of letting them cool down, because they are ready to be handled a few minutes after the flame is out.
Where I am based, the ashes are given back right after the cremation, from the beginning to the end of the whole process is about an hour, then I go home with my little urn...

DBB

Irish Stones wrote: »

Why did you have to wait two weeks to collect the ashes?
It can't be a reason of letting them cool down, because they are ready to be handled a few minutes after the flame is out.
Where I am based, the ashes are given back right after the cremation, from the beginning to the end of the whole process is about an hour, then I go home with my little urn...

There are more options here now, but it was a case of leaving the remains with the vet until collected by the cremation service, which itself could be several days. Once the cremation is done, the ashes are sent back to the vet for collection. It took a week for one of my dogs, almost 3 wks for another. But as I say, the option of bringing your pet to the crematorium yourself seems a more available option now, in Ireland at least!

seamus

Strictly speaking burying a pet in your back garden isn't specifically illegal. But it's not an authorised disposal, and you can be subject to fines under litter laws, just like would happen if you buried your rubbish in the back garden. That's if someone finds out of course.

Burial is permitted in remote areas provided that the animal didn't die from an infectious disease, and there are other requirements about burial away from streams and other water tables.

Your main concern really is about ensuring the plot is secure - it will smell if not deep enough, which may attract scavengers who will dig it up.

I've buried a cat for someone in a back garden. It's a surprisingly large amount of work. We dug down about 75cm - we wanted to go a full metre but it took two of us half a day to get there due to the rocky soil. A GSD would need to go deeper and have a larger hole. You'd want a JCB in for that. Which seems like madness. For simplicity all round, it seems like the best way to go is a cremation and then you can bury the ashes in the garden if you wish, which gets around all of the above issues.

Gael23

We were waiting a couple of weeks as well. I don't know why it takes so long but to be honest we wouldn't have been ready any sooner

tk123

This is the box we chose. It's been in that spot at the end of the stairs 6 years now.