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

Beginning this week, it should seemingly 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 incorporates a memorial park, crematorium, farewell corridor, an home for spreading ashes, and a burial zone for as lots as 500 pets. Solely pets beneath 200 kilograms in weight shall be accepted.

There are fully totally different pet cemeteries in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, and Zaragoza, however none of them are publicly owned equivalent to the one in Malaga. Burying a pet in Spain is prone to be robust; doing so illegally could find yourself in fines from €3,000 as lots as €60,000.

In accordance with Juan Antonio de Luque, president of Málaga’s College of Veterinarians, this launch is necessary for the Andalusian province, residence to over half 1,000,000 pets.

“There are over half 1,000,000 animals, together with canines, cats, ferrets, and fully totally different species, with 114,000 all through the capital metropolis of Málaga alone. Beforehand, house owners wishing to bury their pets wished to resort to personal 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. Much more distinctive is the psychological help offered to house owners by psychologists.

“The difficulty of demise is taboo for society typically, however the demise of animals is seen way more critically due to of us query whether or not or not or not the grief over shedding a canine or cat is prone to be equated with that of shedding a human,”  director of the Animals and Society division at Rey Juan Carlos College Nuria Máximo educated El País.

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

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

Setting up on most individuals pet cemetery in Málaga began in 2016. It price €1.1 million to assemble.