Every dog has its day

By He Na (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-07-09 09:32

The cemetery holds pet burial ceremonies almost every weekend, most of which are very formal. Besides sweeping the tombs in the cemetery, owners can also mourn their pets on the cemetery website. Visitors often light "candles", present "flowers", and write articles to recall and mourn their beloved pets.

Statistics from the Beijing Small Animal Protection Association show that the capital had more than 600,000 registered pet dogs and 500,000 cats in 2007, which means at least 1 million city families keep pets.

The annual death rate of pets is put at 8 percent, that is, about 100,000 cats and dogs die in the city each year.

According to Lu Di, director of the association, the boom in pet cemeteries reflects the rising demand for such services. Ensuring that the animals are buried properly also helps guard against pollution, for self-burials or dumping dead animals in garbage dumps can easily spread disease-causing bacteria, he adds.

But the burials do not come cheap. For example, they vary anywhere between 1,000 yuan and 2,000 at Chen's Baifu cemetery. Owners have to pay 200 yuan to adopt a tree and pay 50 yuan per year as the cemetery's management fee for a 1 sq-m space.

Chen recalls that there were only eight pets buried at Baifu the first year. The number climbed to 15 in the second. And so far this year, more than 500 pets have been laid to rest.

In the past nine years, since Chen established the Baifu cemetery, more than 20 pet cemeteries have come up all over the city.

Chen believes his 120-mu (8 hectares) woodland has enough space to last many more years. His cemetery has not only dogs and cats but also monkeys, ducks, rabbits, fish and even snakes.

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