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Pet Cemetery Positive Perceptions
The pet cemetery-related events that got positive reception in the United States include the Annual Coon Dog Cemetery Labor Day Celebration, the Hartsdale Pet Cemetery's Service Dogs June Celebration, and the National Pet Memorial Day. Meanwhile, major players in the pet cemetery industry such as Stardust Memorials and the Matthews Cremation Division are involved in helping pet owners commemorate the previous lives of their deceased pets through their personalized products and services. As for the best practices in commemorating the lives of deceased pets or in celebrating mournful occasions, some commonly applied best practices include joining a marathon for a cause, planting a tree that can be dedicated to the pet, and building a personal pet memorial structure.
Pet Cemetery Celebrations
The Annual Coon Dog Cemetery Labor Day Celebration
- The Coon Dog Cemetery Labor Day celebration is held every year.
- The event commemorates the first Coon dog called Troop that was buried there.
- For the event, more than 300 graves will be decorated.
- The event features "live bluegrass music, buck dancing, Liar's contest."
- Food and beverage will be served during the event.
- There is also a surprise number every year.
- There are also available souvenirs for sale during the event such as official Coon dog T-shirts, cemetery pins, camouflage caps, and others.
- Every year, around 1,500 people attend the event to take part in the festivities.
- Based on the reviews from the event's Facebook page, people enjoyed the celebration as they were able to take part in the fun events.
- The cemetery was established in 1937 when a Coon dog owner named Key Underwood buried his Coon dog named Troop.
- The cemetery was officially named the "Key Underwood Coon Dog Memorial Graveyard."
- The site has since become a tourist attraction since it is the only one in the world that allows Coon hounds to be buried at the site.
Hartsdale Pet Cemetery's Service Dogs June Celebration
- Every year in June, the Hartsdale Pet Cemetery holds a celebration to honor deceased service dogs such as those who provided their services in wars.
- Some of these honorable service dogs include Scamp, a WWII canine soldier, and Joachim, who toured Vietnam.
- Police dogs who served by sniffing for survivors during terrorist attacks were also honored.
- Massive crowds come to these ceremonies. There are also various cenotaphs that paid tribute to these canines.
- Hartsdale Pet Cemetery is the first pet cemetery in the United States.
- The cemetery accepts all types of animals to be buried on the site.
- The cemetery hosts around 70,000 pets. Some 700 deceased human owners were also buried together with their pets on the site.
National Pet Memorial Day
- Forty years ago, the International Association of Pet Cemeteries and Crematories established the National Pet Memorial Day to honor both deceased and live pets and to recognize their significant roles in their owners' lives.
- The event is celebrated every second Sunday of September.
- The event continues to become more popular as the years go by.
- People use the "#NationalPetMemorialDay" hashtag when posting pictures and other types of content on social media platforms.
- In Orlando, people can celebrate the National Pet Memorial Day by attending the Annual Canine Memorial event.
- People can pay tribute to their deceased dogs in the event.
- The event is organized by the Floating Lantern Memorials.
- Attendees can embellish their special water lanterns with notes and pictures that reflect the precious memories, appreciation, and heartache of their owners.
- At sundown, the lanterns will be illuminated and the owners will carry them to the pier and release them.
- The celebration has live music and other numbers.
MAJOR PLAYERS' PET COMMEMORATIONS
CREMONA
- For CREMONA, the company features several videos on how pet owners can best commemorate and immortalize their favorite pets.
- They also offer innovative ways of remembering pets such as combining their ashes with soil to nourish a new plant.
- The company also offers pet owners a way to commemorate pets by converting their ashes into gems such as sapphires or rubies.
- The company also offers various pieces of jewelry to go with the converted gems.
- Owners can wear these jewelry pieces to remember their pets.
- Posts about the services below gathered multiple likes and shares on the company's social media platform.
- Comments on the services were also generally positive as people love the options to remember their pets.
Matthews Environmental Solutions
- For Matthews Environmental Solutions, the company offers ways to commemorate the lives of pets by offering its Bio Cremation services as an innovative alternative over the old ways of burying and cremating pets.
- The company also offers several unique items to help pet owners in celebrating the lives of their pets.
- The unique pet loss memorial products include pet urns, caskets, garden memorials, and keepsake items.
- The items can be personalized to ensure that pet owners can remember their pets in a meaningful way.
- Posts about these services gained several likes and positive comments on the company's Facebook account.
- On its Twitter account, the company also tweeted about funeral homes that are extending their services to pet cremations.
- These funeral homes are also offering funeral ceremonies as an add-on service to help pet owners celebrate the lives of their pets.
- Several customers of these newly-offered pet crematorium services expressed their appreciation of special funeral arrangements for their pets.
Everlasting Memorials
- Everlasting Memorials offers pet crematory services.
- It offers its custom-designed tombstones to celebrate the memory of a pet.
- On its Facebook page, the company posts about several ways to commemorate pets.
- It also posted about supporting fund-raising activities to fund the commemoration of deceased pets.
- The company's posts garnered several likes and shares.
- Several followers also gave positive comments on the company's posts about these ways to commemorate pets.
Kay Berry
- Kay Berry offers its unique products to help owners treasure the memories of their deceased pets.
- The company offers various options for its epitaphs such as those with quotes and whimsical themes.
Stardust Memorials
- Stardust Memorials offer various pet cremation products such as urns and custom jewelry that can be made from the deceased pet's ashes.
- On the company's Facebook page, it offers various ways to commemorate the lives of the pets through the creative use of its products. As an example, the favorite items of a deceased pet can be placed inside the urns alongside its ashes.
- Several followers of the company expressed their satisfaction at the premium quality of the products offered.
- The company also has several posts that involve commemorating the deceased during holidays.
Rex Granite Company
- The Rex Granite Company offers customized epitaphs such as laser engraved tombstones.
- It also offers custom urns, memorials, and other products to help pet owners to celebrate the previous lives of their deceased pets.
- The company's magazine featured several stories from their satisfied customers.
Iowa Memorial Granite Company
- The Iowa Memorial Granite Company creates various pet memorial products such as urns, headstones, bronze markers, and other items.
- The company can personalize the products based on the customer's preference.
- The customers of the company praised the workmanship and the quality of the service received.
- Several customers also expressed their gratitude to the company for their well-designed products.
- The company also posted about remembering deceased loved ones during the holidays.
Best Practices in Honoring Pets
- One recommendation to honor the memory of a pet involve obtaining or designing a memorial tattoo.
- People can also donate to a local animal shelter under their pet's name.
- Grieving owners can also put together a photo album filled with photos of their pets.
- They can also opt to write a poem.
- People can also donate or volunteer for an animal rights organization.
- They can also build a pet memorial structure in their own gardens.
- People can also visit the graves of their pets. They can bring flowers, lights, and items that the pet loved.
- Having a meditative conversation with the pet while visiting the grave is also advised.
- As with departed people, a candle can also be lighted in memory of a deceased pet. The candle can be lit during birthdays or death anniversaries.
- Planting a tree or any plant is also one of the recommended ways to immortalize a pet. Family members can also join in the ritual of dedicating a living memorial for the pet.
- Pet owners can also avail of the services of the Arbor Day Foundation's "Trees for Pets" initiative that offers to plant trees that can be dedicated to a pet. They will also give the pet owners a "personalized certificate or card" to inform the pet owner of the location of the tree.
- Pet owners can also go through the pictures and videos that feature the pet. Organizing these pictures is one of the productive methods to keep the memory of a pet alive.
- Scrapbooks can also be created out of the pet's photos and favorite items.
- People can also spend some time remembering good memories with the pet especially during celebrations such as the National Pet Memorial Day. This can enable the owners to recall these memories even after a long time.
- Remembering good times with the pet can also provide a positive impact on the emotional healing journey of the owner.
- Grieving pet owners were also advised to adopt or foster a new pet to facilitate the healing journey.
- Hosting a celebration during the birthday or the death anniversary of a loved one is also recommended. During the event, families and friends can share stories on how the deceased touched their lives.
- Joining a walk or a marathon in honor of the deceased can also help in commemorating them in a meaningful manner.
Research Strategy
We have presented three pet cemetery-related events above that have received a positive reception from pet owners.
As for the celebrations or commemoration events that were posted by the given major players in the pet cemetery industry, we looked through these companies' social media pages to determine if they have posted details about these events. We also searched for any press releases or media articles on any events where the major players are involved. However, posts and articles that revolve around these major players were mostly about the products and services that they provide to help pet owners commemorate the lives of their pets. There were no mentions of major celebrations that were associated with these companies. What we found were mostly the funeral-related products and funeral services that they offer to the pet owners to celebrate the lives of their pets. Due to the lack of available data on the major events that the companies are involved in, we have presented instead the pet funeral products and services that they offer to help pet owners commemorate the lives of their pets.
For the best practices, we looked through several media articles, pet funeral sites, associations of pet funeral services organizations, and other similar sources to find their recommendations on how to commemorate sad events such as a pet's death. Based on the goal of the research project, we focused more on the best practices for dealing with a pet's death. We chose those common practices that were recommended by several sites that deal with pet funerals.