DONEGAL looks set to have its first ever pet crematorium after planning permission was granted to local Vet Ciaran Marley to build the facility on his land at Croghanmore, Cloghan.
Donegal County Council granted the permission on January 12 for the construction of a steel framed shed to accommodate a pet incinerator for a proposed pet crematorium within the existing farm enclosure.
Permission is also granted for a new vehicular entrance and access road and associated site development works.
Speaking to the Donegal News this week Mr Marley who has a practice in Milford, Letterkenny and Stranorlar said he would hope to see the facility operational towards the end of this year.
He explained that because no such facility exists here, when their clinics have dogs that may have had to be put down or just at their end of life, they have to freeze the remains and await collection by a company from Northern Ireland who have a pet crematorium.
At least 100 dead dogs would pass through the clinic and that does not take account of the large numbers of dogs which die at home.
“The company will call us when in the area and we need large freezer capacity to keep the dogs who have died and our freezers get filled up.
“We don’t want to be sending dogs to the local knackery so we decided to build our own pet crematorium.
“We had to decide whether or not we were prepared to take it on as a ten year investment. The machinery has to be specially ordered and the lead in time for that is around five months.
“People in Donegal don’t really have much of an option when their pet dies. Many ring the vet as they don’t know what to do and what the law is. It is nice for owners to have the little box of ashes afterwards and it helps them to get over the pet’s death. When I worked in Wales we had a pet crematorium,” he added.
He highlighted the large numbers of dogs in Letterkenny and posed the question as to where a dog might be buried in the town after it dies pointing out that digging a hole is not always an option for the pet owner.
“It is another part of the service we will offer our customers which has proved popular in other places,” Mr Marley added.
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