Editorial
Front Page - Friday, June 4, 2010
Pet Haven services memorialize four-legged family members
Erica Tuggle
Jennifer Stiner, who co-owns the Pet Haven Cemetery and Crematorium with her mother, Brenda Stiner, holds their dog, Shugie, in front of her home near the Pet Haven offices on Standifer Gap Road. Jennifer says Pet Haven provides all the services of a human funeral home with care, compassion and an open door policy so owners can see their loved animal through the cremation or burial process.
- Erica Tuggle
When a pet dies, it can be like losing a family member or even a child, says Jennifer Stiner, who co-owns the Pet Haven Cemetery and Crematorium with her mother, Brenda Stiner.
“There is a strong bond between owners and their pets, because with a child, they grow up and move on, but the pet stays a dependent ... you love them like a four-legged child,” Jennifer says.
Pet Haven is one of over 500 pet cemeteries in the United States and the only licensed burial and crematorium service in Hamilton County, she says. Since 1982, Pet Haven has been making sure that precious pets are given their final beautiful send-off through their burial or cremation services.
The Stiners say that cremation has become the more popular way to memorialize a pet, with one burial for 150 cremations. The three cremation services they offer are private individual cremations that include an urn, separate communal cremations, where two or three animals are put in the machine but are cremated separately (only sharing the machine), or the freezer cleanout services, where there is a mass cremation and the ashes are taken to the cemetery and buried. Cremation prices for the private individual and separate communal cremations vary, and are determined by weight.
Jennifer says she feels cremations are the more popular option because they allow an owner to keep their pet alongside them wherever they may move, hold them and bring them home.
Jennifer says Pet Haven thinks it is important to support the community’s shared pets by providing free cemetery services for K-9 dogs, guide dogs and service animals.
“We want to make sure they have the utmost respect and we want them to be treated well for the lifelong service they provided,” she says.
Pet Haven also provides cremation services for the Chattanooga Zoo, Ringgold Animal Hospital, Standifer Gap Animal hospital and a handful of other pet hospitals in the area. Jennifer says this option ensures that the bodies of the deceased animals are cremated and spread in the cemetery instead of going to the landfill.
Brenda says Pet Haven is trying to make their services as economic as possible because of recent times. She said she sees veterinarians noticing a decrease in business during this time as well.
Jennifer says they track all the cremations and burials they do by owner, pet name and weight, and their records have been used years later to identify ashes left in the back yard of homes as previous cremations of theirs.
Although the cremation ovens are heated to 1650 degrees, Brenda says Pet Haven purposely does not cremate down to pure ashes, but leaves some bone fragments so the animal can be identified. This identification provides the owner with a feeling of security that it is their “baby,” and not just dust. Pet Haven’s open door policy allows owners to stay through the entire process and they check the phone on weekends and after hours in case of emergencies, Jennifer says.
After the cremation, they prepare a packet for the owner that includes a grief sheet, poems on pet death, a sympathy card, a lock of hair and a certificate of cremation. Jennifer says the grief sheet is especially important because it lets pet owners know they are not alone in their sadness, and especially that they are not “crazy” for loving their pet so much.
The future owner of the Pet Haven business is 5-year-old Grace Stiner who helps her mother and grandmother with commercials and caring for the family pets. Brenda calls Grace a “miracle baby,” since she was born to Jennifer after five miscarriages.
Jennifer says she personally understands the service Pet Haven provides as a feeling of comfort for people who cannot have children like she once had.
“Since I have Lupus, [doctors] gave me 10 percent chance of carrying a child and living through it,” she says. “[A pet’s love is] comforting to me, and I know this is similar to others who can’t have children or their children are grown. By having them cremated, you can take them back home where they belong.”
Jennifer says some clients actually tell her that they put their pet remains in the casket with them or they mix their own ashes with their pet’s. Pet remains can also be donated to a veterinary school in the same way that people donate their bodies to medical science.
Staci Chastain lost her Pomeranian, Tiffany Noel Chastain, in January after a fight with another dog, and she says Pet Haven deserves a five star rating for all the support they provided with their services.
“They even went out of their way to find a charm that I could put Tiffany’s ashes in so that she could carry her everywhere with her,” she says.
Chastain says she brought her new puppy to Pet Haven to visit the Stiners, and even though many would think it is a depressing place to go, she says they always work to bring smiles to their client’s faces with all they do.
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