Our Services

Our Mission Statement

Respect – Integrity – Community

Respect in the care and handling of the pets who bring so much joy and fulfillment to our lives. We understand the enormous level of trust involved in our services, and we are honoured to have the responsibility of carrying out our clients’ wishes in a Respectful manner.

We operate with the utmost Integrity, honesty, and reliability in all services we provide. In our opinion, industry standards are not good enough; that’s why we’ve taken it upon ourselves to constantly innovate and improve the level of service we offer.

Community is important to us:

We work closely with our local pet health care professionals to continue to improve services.

We support local artisans who hand-craft our beautiful urns and memorials.

We are an educational resource, providing access to local grief counsellors and support groups.

We support the many pet rescues and charity organizations in our region.

We believe that connecting more within our Community, strengthens our Community, and brings us closer together.

Private Cremation Service

We care about our clients and their pets, and we understand how difficult it is to lose a loved one. Every effort is made to ensure the process goes as smoothly as possible during a very difficult time.

You may wish to scatter, bury, or display an urn with your pet’s ashes. If you would like your pet’s ashes returned to you, we offer a professional private cremation service.

All of our private cremations are single pet private cremations. The remains are collected and returned in a scatterbox or urn of your liking, complete with a signed cremation certificate of authenticity with your pets name on it.

Witnessed Private Cremation Service

Available by special appointment, you may have the privacy of witnessing the cremation process. You are free to choose how much of the process you are comfortable with viewing, or how long you would like to stay.

All other private cremations that would normally be performed during that time of day at our facility in one of our other cremation units are temporarily put on hold until the cremation of your pet is completed, allowing you and/or your family members the utmost privacy during that emotional time.

Communal Cremation Service

We offer a communal cremation service if you do not wish to have your pet’s ashes returned to you.

With a communal cremation service, your pet will be cremated with other pets, and their ashes will be spread at no extra cost over our beautiful scenic field overlooking the lake and surrounding mountains of the valley.

Clients are always welcome to return to their pet’s final resting place and take a stroll around our park-like setting in memoriam of their passed loved one.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What do I do when my pet passes away?

There are 3 different options available:

  1. Clinic pick-up and return service: We come directly to your vet clinic and return the ashes back to the clinic after the cremation has been performed.
  2. Coming direct to our facility: You are welcome to come directly to our facility for services after your pet passes away either at home or at your vet clinic.
  3. House call service: If your pet passes away at home we can arrange a pick up service directly from your house. Included in the service is the return of the ashes back to your home after the cremation has been performed.

2. How long does it take before I receive my pet's ashes back?

For pet owners who come directly to us, cremations are performed right away and ashes are available for pickup either same day or next day. For services through the vet clinics it is between 1-4 days from the time we pick up your pet to when the ashes are dropped off back to the clinic, depending on clinic location and holidays. Outlying clinics are one week or less.

3. What are the costs for services?

The size of your pet, the type of cremation to be performed, whether clients come directly to our facility or through a vet clinic, and house call services are all factors. You can contact us 7 days a week to discuss available options and cost with one of our helpful representatives.

4. How can I be assured my pet receives the best care possible?

Okanagan Pet Cremation staff members are certified through both the ICCFA and the IAOPC, and members of the PLPA and the Cremation Association Of North America (CANA), making us the highest certified pet crematorium staff in Canada. Above that, we are the only Accredited pet crematorium in the BC interior. We are dedicated to upholding the highest respectful quality of service for all our clients needs.

5. Why was there a metal disk returned with the ashes?

The round metal disk is a Cremation ID Tag used as a unique numeric traceable identifier that accompanies your pet from the time of arrival to our facility, during the cremation, and after the cremation.

6. Do you have any association with the multinational pet cremation corporation Gateway Inc.?

Absolutely not! Our Lower Mainland clients as well as our B.C. Interior clients can rest assured that we have no association with Gateway Inc.

Accreditation – Association – Memberships

We Are IAOPCC Accredited

The International Association of Pet Cemeteries and Crematories (IAOPCC) has awarded its highest honour to Okanagan Pet Cremation as it passes the industry’s first and only Pet Crematory Accreditation Program. Pet parents can feel reassured about the care their deceased pet receives.

In order to pass Accreditation, the IAOPCC examined Okanagan Pet Cremations systems, processes, and procedures to be sure every aspect met the IAOPCC’s standards of quality.

These included transportation, each type of pet cremation, readily retrievable records, facility standards, continuing education for pet crematorium staff members, and other areas essential to the best pet and client care available today.

For more information on the IAOPCC, please see the IAOPCC Website.

IAOPCC Accredited Logo

Pet Loss Professionals Alliance Member

We are a member of the Pet Loss Professionals Alliance and proud to operate within the high level of standards and Code of Ethics of the PLPA and guarantee that the remains returned to you are those of your pet and your pet only.

Okanagan Pet Cremation has always only performed True Private Cremations. We believe that Segregated or Partitioned cremations (where more than one body is present inside the cremation chamber during the cremation process) are NOT considered a True Private Cremation, and it is important to know the difference.

Obligations of Membership in PLPA

As a member of the PLPA we recognize that we have special obligations to the pets, families and other businesses that we serve. As guardians of pets in death, we pledge:

To care for the remains of those entrusted to us with dignity, respect, and professional skill, whether at a clinic, funeral home, crematory or cemetery

To honor the wishes of the family and to serve all families with respect, understanding and confidentiality

To protect and preserve all interment sites and relevant historical data entrusted to us

To be guided by the spirit and letter of all applicable laws and regulations set by governing bodies with jurisdiction over our activities in the ownership, management and operation of a funeral home, crematory, cemetery or related endeavor

To be an educational resource and guide in standards relating to final pet death care options for our client families as well as our process partners

For more information on the PLPA, please see the PLPA website.

PLPA Member
ICCFA Logo