afd profile-deceased pet care (2)

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14 American Funeral Director February 2011

AFD ProfileBy Tanya Kenevich

Photo: Doyle Shugart shows the viewing room of his familys new pet funeral home in Atlanta.


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American Funeral Director February 2011

his scenario is not uncommonand will certainly becomemore prevalent in 2011 andbeyond, as the interest in pet

ownership and dedication continuesto grow. According to the HartzHuman-Animal Bond Survey, con-ducted by Harris Interactive onbehalf of the Hartz Mountain Corp.in 2005, 76 percent of pet owners saythat their pet is their loyal compan-ion and part of the family. In addi-tion, the survey showed that 56percent of women and 41 percent ofmen talk about their pet to theirfriends and family as if it is a mem-ber of the family, and 48 percent say

that their pet sleeps on the bed andhogs the covers and the pillow.Taking this information a step fur-

ther in the financial realm, a Business-Week article stated that pet owners

spent $41 billion on their pets in 2007 double the amount spent on pets adecade ago.

If this is how the pet owners of 2011are feeling about their animal compan-

ions, is it really so shocking that the petloss industry continues to grow, even intimes of economic difficulty?

One pet loss business that under-stands this ever-growing need isDeceased Pet Care Funeral Home,Crematories & Cemeteries, based inGeorgia. The company has beenowned and operated by the Shugartfamily for nearly 40 years, its humblebeginnings starting with Doyle andMaudann Shugart in 1972. What

As a family comes to terms with a death of a loved one, those who are

the decision-makers only want the best for the deceased loved one.

They want a full-service funeral, embalming, keepsakes and a specialurn for the cremation. The family mourns over the casket, feeling

incomprehensible loss and grief; they cry uncontrollably and say

farewell as they see their deceased family member being placed inside

the cremator. But this deceased loved one isnt the esteemed family

patriarch or a beloved aunt or uncle; its Scruffy, the family dog.

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T

Photo: (back row left to right)

Kyle Shugart, Donna Shugart-Bethune, Letitia

Shugart and Keith Shugart (sitting left to

right) Doyle L. Shugart and Maudann Shugart

A Dedicationto Pet Loss


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started as a modest crematory founded

by a married couple yearning to give

pets the dignity they deserve hasturned into a well-known Atlanta sta-

ple with four locations and an unsur-passed commitment to the service and

memorialization of deceased pets.

Humble BeginningsDeceased Pet Care, although highly

respected in the Atlanta area, started

out small. We just were in a very, very

small location about 1,500 squarefeet. A little bitty brick building that

(Doyle) started out in, said DonnaShugart-Bethune, director of public

relations for Deceased Pet Care and

one of Doyle and Maudann Shugartsthree grown children.

But even with the funeral homes

small quarters, the quality of servicegiven by the Shugart family was veryhigh.

Weve always offered full services

for pet owners, anything from burial toindividual pet cemeteries to cremation.

Everything from embalming of a pet to

a full viewing, graveside services to

individual same-day services where you

can actually be with your pet duringthe cremation process, Shugart-

Bethune said. We can have a privatecremation with the pet owner on site,

so our services in terms of what weve

offered, weve had those services allalong from the beginning.

Doyle Shugart, founder and presidentof Deceased Pet Care, said, It was

always, to me, like it should be estab-

lished as a funeral home for humans except it would be for pets from the

very beginning.In addition to providing meaning-

ful service and support to pet fami-

lies, Deceased Pet Care also foundimportance in keeping relationships

with the community healthy and

intact, which helped the positiveword of mouth grow. We are a verylong-standing establishment here in

Atlanta, Shugart-Bethune said. I

think our veterinarians recognize thatand partner with us and we do the

same with them, so it actually helps

build that community relationship

a m on g o u r v e te r ina r ian s ( a nd )

among our business partners to pro-vide more networking, both for them

and for us.As the business grew in Atlanta, it

was evident that the building was

going to need to grow along with it.We moved into temporary trailers for

a year while they tore the old buildingdown and put the new building up,

Shugart-Bethune said. We went from

a 1,500-square-foot building to aboutan 8,000-square-foot building on two

floors.She added, This has been a 40-

year-old-long dream of our family, to

be able to provide all the amenitiesthat we felt like the aftercare industry

needed.

Perfecting Pet Loss ServiceDeceased Pet Cares new pet funeral

home, which had its official grand

opening in February 2011, is thelargest full-service pet funeral home in

the United States, according to the



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company. It exponentially steps up thelevel of comfort for families and the

availability of services and space,which includes individual counselingrooms that are set up like small living

rooms. This is where clients can meetprivately with an employee or a griefcounselor of the funeral home. The

grand size of the new funeral homemakes business more efficient as well;it can now handle three pet funeral

services at the same time.

It will be much more than a cre-matory for pets. There is a great

desire across the nation at this time toprovide cremation services for pets,Shugart said. What everyone is

going to have to realize is that youremore than just a crematory for pets,that you need a full-service funeral

home where you can have services,where you can have embalming,where you can have a schedule for

cremation, where you can have a

chapel in the cemetery itself or in thefuneral home.

The aesthetic appeal of the newfuneral home, contrary to the olderDeceased Pet Care building, was also

improved. What we did in the designof the funeral home we really want-ed to make it feel really warm and

inviting and soothing and at the sametime, life-affirming, Shugart-Bethunesaid. When you walk in the front

door of our lobby, you have a garden

17American Funeral Director February 2011

When you walk in the

front door of our lobby, you

have a garden that has birds

as well as a fish pond. We

wanted to send that feelingof life not to feel like youre

entering in a sad, depressing

place. - Donna Shugart-Bethune


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that has birds as well as a fish pond.We wanted to send that feeling of life not to feel like youre entering in asad, depressing place.

Rooms were also designed anddecorated to look comfortable and

warm, instead of feeling like a coldoffice or business room. And sincethe business is family owned (Doyleruns the business with his wife Mau-dann and their children Keith, Donna

and Kyle), the family tree theme ofD ec ea se d P et C ar e c on ti nu esthroughout all the rooms at thefuneral home. We have a CypressRoom, we have an Oak Room, wehave a Dogwood Room and we have

the Magnolia Chapel it was reallyplanned and thought out to provide

comfort as you go through the funer-al home, Shugart-Bethune said.Our showroom was planned andthought out with the intention of it

being something that youd see inyour own living room if you had

b o ok c as e s. I t w a s a s h ow r oo mdesigned to make you feel at home.

One of the most intriguing aspectsof the funeral home isnt as commonas other pet loss services in other firmsbut could be just as important if not

more so.We actually have a euthanasiaroom; we call it the Willow Room,and it allows mobile veterinarians tomeet pet parents here and its set up

very much like a warm bedroom,Shugart-Bethune said. There is a cus-tomized, oversized bed that we havebasically designed and created usingfabrics that are nonporous and thatare easily cleaned, along with the

flooring and the wall coverings.As an example, if there is a large

pet or a very sick pet and the petowner did not want to euthanize thepet in their own home or in a veteri-narians office, they can continue

with the process in a comforting andquiet place like the Willow Room.

Weve actually had clients tell usthat they never went back to the vet-erinarian that euthanized their lastpet because they could not take thememory of going back there and see-in g t h at s a me r o om , S h ug a rt -

Bethune said. So it gives thoseclients and those mobile veterinariansthe option to meet here and have thatprocess done.

The Willow Room has been very

well received by clients and veterinar-ians, as the pet parent can spend thelast moments of his or her pets life inthe room, with soft music and thesound of a water fountain lightlyflowing in the background. Until

youve gone through that process,you have no idea how heart-wrench-

ing it is, Shugart-Bethune said. Thisis a comforting, quiet place.Another uncommon offering by

Deceased Pet Care is the service of

freeze-drying ones pet which is notan easy process and takes severalmonths. In order for a client tochoose this option, the pet must beunder preservation as soon as possi-

ble in a cooler or freezer, becausethere cannot be any deterioration tostart the process for freeze-drying theanimal.

We take the pet at the time, andwe place it in a cooler facility that is

s o me w he r e b e tw e en 2 5 a n d 3 1degrees Fahrenheit. The pet would bein a frozen position at the time thatwe talk to the pet owner (before thefreezing), we like to get a picture of

the way they want their pet to beposed, Shugart said. They can beposed in four or five different posi-tions, like in the fetal position, or sit-ting in front of a fireplace, or eitherup on its haunches begging for food

or whatever position that they wantit in, whether the eyes will be open orclosed, if they want that done.

Shugart-Bethune is quick to addthat this process is not taxidermy.The importance of the freeze-drying

is that the pet is posed in the waythat gives comfort to the pet owner.So having that picture and that con-versation can really give what the petowner is looking for, Shugart-


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Bethune said. Its not one of ourhigh-demand services. Its for a veryselect, elite group of clients. Its avery tedious, ongoing process deter-mining what the client is looking forand providing that level of comfortthat the pet owner is seeking.

Acknowledging a Pet LostSince its founding, Deceased Pet

Care has provided grief counselingfor pet owners to the highest acclaim.

Everyone on our staff, especiallythose who answer the phones, theyprovide grief therapy on a daily basistalking with pet owners and contact-ing them, Shugart said. If theywant to take a few minutes and dis-cuss their pets life, our counselors

are trained to do that. If they sensethat this person, this client on thephone, needs more conversation,then we have a list of grief therapycounselors for that client in their

area. We try to arrange that for themand get them in touch with a personwith a degree in grief therapy.

Shugart-Bethune added, The griefprocess is not just as simple as takingcare of the pet and just providing a cre-mation. Its just so much more than

that. Its understanding where that petowner is coming from and helpingthem through the process, providingthat level of comfort along the way andknowing that the relationship with apet is so different from a human rela-tionship.

She continued, With a human, thereis a lot of emotional baggage and emo-tional ties, where with a pet, theres sortof an unconditional love and bondingthat youre not going to have in all rela-tionships of your life probably in any

relationship of your life. Its a differenttype of grief that a pet owner goesthrough.

Shugart explained, Its just that somany of our clients remember us fromthe past and you have what you callrepeat services or repeat business ofclients that we have come to realizethat they need the same understandingas if a member of the family passedaway.

He added, The aftercare for grief isthere for the pet owner. If they could

just sit down with you and just talkabout it and discuss it for a few min-utes, it just gives a great relief to them,and they remember that. They remem-ber the conversation you had withthem.

Deceased Pet Care has four locationsin Georgia, which include offices,chapels, showrooms, cemeteries, crema-tories and more but the services thatthe business can provide arent limited.

As a full-service funeral home, weprovide any kind of service that you

could possibly think of, Shugart said.We can handle that service, we cantake care of it, and if you want to cus-tom-design the service, we can cus-tom-make it for you.

He added, Weve had the conceptfrom the very beginning that a ser-vice for pets should always be set upon the same type of service that youwould have for a human. And that iswhat weve always followed.



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