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Explaining Body Care Options
Whenever possible, decisions about body care should also be made prior to euthanasia. Owners should be offered all of the options available to them and each should be explained with honestly and sensitivity. The cost of each option should also be disclosed. It is helpful to use visual aids during this explanation. For example, if veterinarians make caskets or urns available for owners to purchase, samples can be shown to them. Body care options can be explained by either veterinarians or technicians. It is important to emphasize that this information is not delivered in the form of a dry, continuous monologue as owners often respond to it by crying or by asking several questions. When offering body care options for small animals, veterinarians and staff at the Colorado State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital say something like: "Mary, we can offer you three options for taking care of Pepper's body after he dies. The first option is that you can take him with you and bury him in a pet cemetery or in another appropriate place. If that is your choice, we encourage you to bring something you will feel okay about transporting his body in. This might be a blanket or a box. We also have caskets available if you would like one. Second, we can cremate Pepper's body and either dispose of the cremains for you or return them to you, if you so desire. If you want them returned to you, you may want to choose an urn or another kind of container to keep them in. Some people like to keep their companion animals' cremains and some like to spread them in an appropriate location. Since so many people today move quite often, many owners choose cremation so they can take their companion animals' cremains with them. Some clients find it useful to see what cremains look like. It helps make their decision real. Are you interested in seeing some cremains?" If clients answer yes, show them an urn containing some cremains. Be sure to explain whose cremains they are. "Your third option, Mary, is to have us take care of his body for you. Although I wish I had a more aesthetically pleasing option to offer you, my only options is _______." Veterinarians should fill in the blank with whatever is accurate, usually mass incineration, mass burial, or delivery to a rendering company. Since the majority of mass burials take place in landfills, owners should
be given this information. If it is accurate, owners can be told that
an area of the landfill is set aside for animal burial.
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