Cremation

I had my beloved dog put to sleep at a nearby vets practice in July. There was an outstanding balance which needed to be paid before my dog was cremated I still haven’t been able to pay and the vets have told me they will keep my dog at the practice until I have paid the full amount before cremation is this right? How do I know if this is true?

Hello and I am so sorry to hear that there are financial problems at such a stressful time.  Funeral arrangements and costs are always difficult to discuss, both in the human and animal world.  It sounds to me as though your vet appreciates your emotional need to have your much-loved pet individually-cremated, and is keeping the body aside for you in order that such a cremation can take place as soon as you have the money together.  I have worked at many vets where this practice is common and it has come about as a result of a harsh, business reality:  that a pets' ashes are invaluable to the family, but also expensive.  Once a vet has paid for this service, they cannot recount the cost elsewhere.  Unless the family pay, they will be left with both the fee and the ashes to take care of.  I have worked at practices that lost hundreds of pounds in unclaimed ashes and unpaid cremation fees each year, but still took care of the ashes.  A vets is a business and this cost is not trivial to them either, much less the distress to the staff, so storing bodies until the costs are paid is a common solution.  In my experience, vets do not take a cut of the cremation costs;  this is done by a different company.  The vet simply holds the body, often in cold storage.  Naturally, a body would biodegrade but the cold prevents this.  However, it can change the appearance.  So although it is likely that your vet could show your pets' remains to you in order to prove that they still have them, they will probably prefer not to and you may prefer to remember your pet as they were.  I don't think you need to worry about trusting them;  one thing that you know about veterinary staff, is that many of them will be pet-owners too, whose pets have been through this very same system after they passed away.

I think that you will know this information about cremations, but for anyone else wanting to read, please cut and paste this into your browser. https://vethelpdirect.com/vetblog/2021/11/08/difficult-decisions-standard-vs-individual-pet-cremation/#h-cremation-options

I would like to add, that both of my dogs were put to sleep in whichever surgery I worked at at the time, and were cremated by that same procedure.  Some crematorium companies have website or client information sites, in order that you can understand more about what happens when your pet is cremated.