According to this article from the Pine Journal, Bob and Karen Atkins operate the Atkins-Northland Funeral Home and Crematory in Cloquet, Minnesota.  The couple is responsible for a business with a volume of about 160 deaths annually and when the cremation percentage started to rise they decided to put in a human crematory instead of delivering the remains to a trade crematory for the process of cremation.

Again, according to the article, the City of Cloquet was not excited about the possibility of a crematory in the city so the couple looked to the small community of Scanlon which welcomed them.  They purchased an empty building and decided to put in two crematory retorts – one for humans and one for animals.

Thus, their new business, Fur-Ever Loved Pet Cremation Services was born as a spin-off of their human funeral and cremation business.

According to the article, the company has completed about 150 pet cremations – at a minimum cost of $125 – in the three months they have been in business.  On an annualized basis that would equal a minimum of additional revenue of about $75,000.

Funeral Director Daily take:  It appears that this is a highly successful business story up in the lightly populated northeast corner of the state of Minnesota.  It has really made me think about the options available to funeral directors for this ancillary income.  In communities where the human population growth has been stagnant, I believe deceased pet care is a great option to add to your revenue base and potential profits.

While the Atkins-Northland Funeral Home chose another branding opportunity by using the name Fur-Ever Loved Pet Cremation Services, others in our industry are capitalizing off their brand image as death care experts to attract the pet care business.  Schoedinger Funeral Services, the market share leader in Columbus, Ohio, has recently opened Schoedinger Pets (you can see there web-site here).

Companies like Shoedingers are hoping that there is a cross reference in the death care industry where familiarity with a branded firm will lead human client families to the pet care side of the business and pet care client families to the human side of the business.  I like to say, “That is smart thinking.”

There is also ample room for other products in the pet care business.  We lost our basset hound two years ago and have ordered up several canvas pictures from a funeral products provider that we have, among other things, given to our children as Christmas presents.

I would suggest that pet care is not something to be taken lightly and as funeral service changes, this niche will grow as client families will turn to us to handle their four-legged loved ones.  At some point you will need to make the decision if you will help them with pet care or hand them off to someone else — either a competitor or someone not versed in death care like you are.

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