When a pet dies, the first feeling is usually not practical at all. It is the silence by the food bowl, the empty spot on the couch, the way the house suddenly feels too still. And yet, very quickly, you may be asked to make decisions: home burial for pets, pet cemetery burial, private or communal cremation, maybe even newer options like aquamation or body donation. It can feel like too much at once, especially if you are also explaining things to children or trying to manage work and other responsibilities.
This guide is meant to slow that moment down. It walks through the main pet aftercare options, shares what families often find comforting (or stressful) about each, and gently points you toward places where you can learn more, see examples, and choose memorials like pet urns for ashes, keepsake urns, or cremation jewelry if that feels right.
According to the National Funeral Directors Association, the U.S. cremation rate for people is projected to be about 61.9% in 2024, with burial continuing to decline. The Cremation Association of North America reports a similar national cremation rate of 61.8% for 2024. While data for pets is less centralized, market research suggests that pet funeral and cremation services are growing rapidly worldwide, with the global pet funeral services market expected to grow at double-digit annual rates over the next decade. Behind these numbers are families like yours, trying to answer very personal questions about what to do with ashes, how to honor an animal, and how to balance cost, law, and emotion.
Home burial for pets: comfort close to home
For many families, the first instinct is simple: “I just want to bury them in the yard.” Home burial for pets can feel natural and comforting. Your pet stays on the land where they lived and played, and it may be easy for children to understand. Funeral.com’s Journal article “A Helpful Guide on How to Bury a Pet in Your Backyard, Legally” talks through these instincts while also highlighting practical steps many people don’t know to check.
The first questions are legal and environmental. Some cities, counties, and homeowners’ associations restrict or prohibit backyard pet burials, especially in dense neighborhoods or areas with a high water table. Local rules may dictate how deep you must dig, how far from property lines or water sources, and whether certain animals (like large dogs or livestock) can be buried on residential land at all. Articles such as Funeral.com’s “Burying a Pet with Respect: Legal, Safe, and Heartfelt Methods” explain how to check local ordinances, call your veterinarian for guidance, and make sure your plan is safe for wildlife and other pets.
Emotionally, home burial can be very meaningful because you can create a small grave marker, plant flowers, or place a favorite toy. For young children, this can become a gentle ritual and a place to visit on hard days. The harder side is thinking ahead. If you rent, may move soon, or live in an apartment without land, home burial might not be allowed or might mean leaving your pet’s resting place behind. In those situations, families often turn to pet cremation urns, pet cemetery burials, or portable memorials like cremation necklaces that can travel with them.
Pet cemetery burial: a dedicated resting place
If you want a marked grave but your home is not suitable, a pet cemetery can offer a permanent, maintained resting place. Pet cemeteries typically provide plots, caskets, markers, and sometimes visitation areas or memorial walls. National surveys of pet cemeteries suggest that cemetery pet burial can cost anywhere from a few hundred dollars to several thousand, depending on the size of the pet, the location, the type of casket, and the style of headstone.
The benefits are clear for some families. There is a dedicated place to visit, often with landscaping and a sense of community. You do not have to worry about future moves or landlords. For others, the main tension is cost and distance. Cemetery fees, ongoing maintenance, and memorial accessories often make this one of the more expensive pet aftercare options, and the cemetery might be farther from where you live than you would like.
Families who choose cemetery burial sometimes still decide to keep a small portion of ashes in small cremation urns or keepsake urns to have something physically close at home. If you are thinking about this combination approach, browsing Funeral.com’s Small Cremation Urns for Ashes collection and Keepsake Cremation Urns for Ashes can help you picture what a subtle home memorial might look like next to a cemetery grave.
Pet cremation: private, communal, and everything in between
Cremation has become the most common form of disposition for people in the United States, and the same trend is appearing in pet care as well. When you talk with a vet or pet aftercare provider, you’ll usually hear about private, partitioned, and communal cremation. Funeral.com’s Journal piece “Pet Cremation Options Explained: Communal, Partitioned, and Private Cremation” breaks down these choices in detail.
In a private cremation, your pet is the only animal in the chamber; the ashes you receive are just theirs. In partitioned cremation, more than one pet is in the chamber but separated by dividers. Communal cremation is usually the most affordable: many pets are cremated together, and individual ashes are not returned.
Cost is a common concern. Consumer guides on how much does cremation cost for pets often estimate that private pet cremation in the U.S. can range from about $50 to $600 or more, depending on pet size, region, and service level, with communal cremation at the lower end and private cremation at the higher end. Funeral.com’s article “Pet Cremation Cost by Size: Small, Medium, and Large Dog and Cat Price Guide” walks through these numbers in a family-friendly way and suggests questions you can ask to understand exactly what is included.
If you are also comparing human and pet costs side by side, Funeral.com’s guide “How Much Does Cremation Cost? Average Prices and Budget-Friendly Options” explains how families use cremation urns for ashes, small cremation urns, and keepsake urns to create meaningful memorials at different price points, and many of the same principles apply when you are planning for pets.
Cremation gives you flexibility about what happens next. You might choose a full-size pet urn from Funeral.com’s Pet Cremation Urns for Ashes collection to keep most or all of the remains at home, then share a small amount in pet keepsake cremation urns, small cremation urns, or cremation necklaces for family members in other homes. Some families choose a statue-style memorial from the Pet Figurine Cremation Urns for Ashes collection, where the ashes are hidden inside a sculpture that looks like their dog or cat.
If you are feeling unsure about which pet urns for ashes might fit your plans, Funeral.com’s guide “Pet Urns for Ashes: A Complete Guide for Dog and Cat Owners” and “Cremation Urns, Pet Urns, and Cremation Jewelry: A Gentle Guide to Keeping Ashes Close” are good next reads. They walk through size, materials, and display ideas in more depth than one article can.
Aquamation and greener cremation alternatives
A newer option, available in some areas, is aquamation—sometimes called water cremation or alkaline hydrolysis. For pets, this process has been available in certain regions for years and is gradually becoming more widely known. Instead of flames, aquamation uses warm water, gentle pressure, and an alkaline solution to accelerate the natural breakdown that would occur in soil over many years. Veterinary and pet hospice sources describe aquamation as using less energy than flame cremation and producing fewer direct emissions, which makes it appealing to families who want an eco-conscious option.
If you have heard others mention “water cremation” or “green cremation” and wondered what it means, local pet cremation providers or hospice-focused veterinarians can tell you whether it is available where you live. From the family’s point of view, the experience is similar to flame-based cremation: you receive bone-ash remains, which can be placed in pet cremation urns, keepsake urns, or cremation jewelry. In most cases, the same collections and guides you would use for traditional cremation—such as Funeral.com’s Pet Cremation Urns for Ashes and Pet Keepsake Cremation Urns for Ashes—will also work beautifully for aquamation ashes.
Donation for teaching or research
In some regions and veterinary teaching hospitals, you may be able to donate your pet’s body to help train future veterinarians or support research. Policies vary widely, and this choice is not right for everyone, but some families find comfort in knowing their pet’s death may help other animals in the future. If you are interested, it is best to speak with your veterinarian in advance if possible, because donation programs usually have specific consent forms, time windows, and health criteria.
Even when a pet’s body is donated, there may be options for cremation afterward, with ashes returned to you. If that is important to you, ask clearly before you sign anything so you know what to expect and can plan memorials and pet urns accordingly.
Costs, budgets, and planning ahead
Money may be the last thing you want to think about right now, but it is a real part of pet burial vs cremation decisions. Pet cemetery burials often run from several hundred dollars up to around $1,500–$2,000 or more, depending on the plot, casket, and memorial stone. Private pet cremation is usually less expensive overall, especially if you choose a simple urn or scatter most of the ashes, but costs still vary widely by region. Thinking through the financial side is not a sign that you loved your pet any less; it is part of responsible funeral planning for animals, just as it is for people.
Planning ahead, even in a very simple way, can make a future loss a little less chaotic. That might mean knowing which local pet cremation provider you would call, looking up pet aftercare options in your city, or reading through Funeral.com’s pet-focused guides such as “Pet Cremation: A Practical & Emotional Guide for Families”. It may also mean considering whether you lean more toward burial, cremation, or aquamation, and what kind of memorial—an urn, a figurine, a necklace, a garden stone—feels most like your pet.
For a broader view of options, laws, and costs across the country, Funeral.com’s hub page “Pet Cremation Guide by USA State: Laws, Costs, and Options” brings together state-by-state information so you can see what is typical where you live.
Choosing an urn or memorial when you are not sure what comes next
One of the hardest parts of deciding about pet urns, graves, or cremation jewelry is that grief evolves. At first, you may feel certain you want a large urn in the living room; later you might prefer a smaller piece tucked quietly on a shelf. Or you might begin with keeping ashes at home and later decide on a scattering ceremony or gentle water burial.
Funeral.com’s article “Keeping Ashes at Home: How to Do It Safely, Respectfully, and Legally” talks about where urns can safely be placed, how to balance visibility with privacy, and what to consider if you may move someday or share space with roommates or extended family. If you imagine yourself wanting multiple options, combining a primary urn with smaller memorials can be wise. You might keep most of the ashes in a pet urn from the Pet Cremation Urns for Ashes collection, place a small amount in a cremation necklace, and share a symbolic pinch in pet keepsake cremation urns for close friends or adult children.
If you prefer something more decorative, figurine urns can blur the line between memorial and art. The Pet Figurine Cremation Urns for Ashes collection includes breed-specific and pose-based sculptures where the ashes are hidden inside the base. Some families pair these pieces with creative ideas from Funeral.com’s article “From Collars to Paw Prints: Meaningful Memorial Ideas for a Pet Who Has Died”, such as framing a favorite photo or integrating the collar tag into the display.
Apartment dwellers, kids, and other special situations
If you live in an apartment or condo, home burial is usually not an option, and even storing a large urn may feel tricky. This is where small cremation urns, keepsake urns, and cremation jewelry can shine. A tiny urn on a bedside table, a small candle-style urn on a bookshelf, or a pendant worn close to your heart can feel intimate without taking much space. Funeral.com’s collections of Small Cremation Urns for Ashes and Pet Keepsake Cremation Urns for Ashes are curated with exactly these situations in mind.
Talking with children about aftercare choices can be delicate. Some kids want to see the body and help choose a grave or urn; others prefer to say goodbye from a little distance. It can help to describe options in concrete, non-scary terms: that cremation uses special heat (or water, in the case of aquamation) to gently turn the body into soft ashes; that pet cemetery burials are like gardens where many animals are laid to rest; that pet urns for ashes are special containers that keep a part of the pet safe. If you choose cremation jewelry, you might explain that a tiny amount of ashes or fur will be tucked inside a pendant you can wear when you miss them.
Planning pet aftercare in advance
No one likes to imagine the day they lose a pet, but thinking ahead—even a little—can soften the edges when the time comes. Planning might mean asking your vet which local providers they trust, looking up pet aftercare options in your city, or reading through Funeral.com’s pet-focused guides such as “Pet Cremation: A Practical & Emotional Guide for Families”. It might mean considering whether you lean more toward burial, cremation, or aquamation, and what kind of memorial—an urn, a figurine, a necklace, a garden stone—feels most like your pet.
If you are already in the middle of a loss, planning “ahead” can simply mean taking a breath before you sign anything. It is okay to ask for a written price list, to request time to think at home, or to say that you need a night to talk as a family. You do not have to answer every question immediately, and you are allowed to change your mind about details like which cremation urns for ashes or pet cremation urns you eventually choose.
What matters most is not whether you pick the “perfect” option but whether the choice feels, in some quiet way, like love. Whether that love looks like a shaded backyard grave, a neat row of keepsake urns on a mantle, a simple cremation necklace, or a figurine urn beside the window where your pet used to sleep, you are honoring a relationship that mattered deeply.
