‘Pets deserve decent burial, too’

MANILA, Philippines - Even pets deserve a decent burial site.

The Philippine Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) yesterday said pets that have become part of the family for several years should not be discarded unceremoniously like trash when the animals die.

PAWS executive director Ana Cabrera said there are Filipinos who mistreat their pets upon death by just throwing the remains into the garbage.

Once they die, the pets are placed inside a sack or a garbage bag and thrown into the back of a garbage truck.

But Cabrera said that this is not the proper way to deal with animal corpses.

“They should dispose of the bodies of the pets properly. They are almost members of the family because they have spent most of their lives with them,” she said.

“If you just throw the dead animals away, that is undignified,” she said, adding that just like humans, pets deserve a proper burial.

Aside from sentimental reasons, Cabrera cited sanitary considerations as another reason why a proper burial for pets is needed.

“If you bury them, they would not spread diseases,” she said.

“We would rather that the pets be buried in the backyard or an empty lot,” she added.

If the pet owners do not have backyards or open spaces where they can bury the animals, they can consider pet cemeteries or have the animals cremated, according to Cabrera.

At the PAWS center, about 100 square meters have been turned into a pet cemetery.

But since the center has limited space, pets are buried on top of each other.

The center charges P500 for small pets and P1,000 for big animals, covering excavation and burial services.

They also have a memorial wall where short dedications can be posted for the animal but this would require an additional P2,000 payment.

Cabrera suggested that if an animal dies during a weekend or a holiday and cannot be buried within 24 hours, the corpse may be preserved by placing it on ice and sealing it inside a plastic bag.