Spain’s first public pet cemetery opens with grief help for house owners

Beginning this week, it will potential be attainable to bury beloved pets in a public cemetery only for them.

Positioned in Málaga’s Parque Cementerio, this new facility is bigger than solely a resting place; it features a memorial park, crematorium, farewell corridor, an space for spreading ashes, and a burial zone for as quite a bit as 500 pets. Solely pets beneath 200 kilograms in weight shall be accepted.

There are utterly totally different pet cemeteries in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, and Zaragoza, nonetheless none of them are publicly owned just like the one in Malaga. Burying a pet in Spain is probably powerful; doing so illegally might find yourself in fines from €3,000 as quite a bit as €60,000.

In line with Juan Antonio de Luque, president of Málaga’s Faculty of Veterinarians, this launch is significant for the Andalusian province, dwelling to over half 1,000,000 pets.

“There are over half 1,000,000 animals, together with canines, cats, ferrets, and utterly totally different species, with 114,000 all through the capital metropolis of Málaga alone. Beforehand, house owners wishing to bury their pets needed to resort to private cemeteries,” he educated Spanish newspaper El País.

Alongside cremation or burial, Malaga’s cemetery handles post-death paperwork like transporting deceased pets and updating registries. Relatively extra distinctive is the psychological help supplied to house owners by psychologists.

“The problem of demise is taboo for society often, nonetheless the demise of animals is seen much more critically on account of individuals query whether or not or not or not the grief over shedding a canine or cat is probably equated with that of shedding a human,”  director of the Animals and Society division at Rey Juan Carlos School Nuria Máximo educated El País.

“As we perceive that household pets are extra members, their caregivers expertise a part of that course of, that transition in route of demise, and a great deal of lack the monetary means to bury them as they might one totally different member of the family. Ensuing from this fact, it is important to have public cemeteries, as they facilitate the grieving course of.”

The charges for the pet cemetery vary from €40 for a significant collective cremation to €975, relying on the service.

Establishing on most individuals pet cemetery in Málaga began in 2016. It worth €1.1 million to assemble.