Article**@China Daily HK
In recent years, the booming pet funeral industry has created a group of "rare" professionals and professions - pet funeral specialists. The emergence of this unusual profession is a manifestation of the potential and value of an emotionally driven economy.
Compared with the surge and development of demand for pet food and toys in the market, pet funeral and pet emotional memorial services have also received more and more attention from pet owners, who prefer their pets to leave with dignity and love. According to global accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, the economic market value of China's pet industry in 2021 was 131 billion yuan (184.).$100 million). Since 2019, with an annual growth rate of 18%, more and more families, especially in big cities, have turned to "anthropomorphic" pet breeding, and have begun to seek pet companionship and emotional and spiritual comfort.
The main job of a pet mortician is to tidy up the remains of pets, including body washing, hair combing, nail trimming, etc., so that pets can say goodbye to their owners with the best appearance.
Lo Chi-lam, a pet morticist at Professional Pet Cremation & Memorial Services (PPSD) in Hong Kong, said: "It's an honour to help owners with their deceased pets through their last beautiful journey, as most people often find themselves overwhelmed after their pets pass away, and our role is to help them deal with their pets. ”
Luo Zhilin shared with this newspaper some of his past pet funeral experience, in the process of service he will often be moved by the emotional bond between the owner and the pet, can feel that the owner is the pet as a family member, what impressed him the most is the death of a 20-year-old dog, this dog is to accompany the family children to grow up, "this emotion can not only use the" pet fetters Description, but as sad as the sudden departure of a family member who has been with him for more than 20 years, it is difficult not to empathize with this moment, even if he is professional. ”
"For me, pet funeral is not only a lucrative profession, but also a spirit of serving customers wholeheartedly. ”。Every day he helps with a dozen pets in their end-of-life rituals, mainly cats and dogs, but also large animals such as hamsters, chinchillas, tortoises, lizards, and even horses. His monthly income is as high as 30,000 Hong Kong dollars (about 3,845.).$16).
At first, Law's family didn't understand his work. He had to explain that pets, like humans, should leave with dignity. In Hong Kong, owners can also send their pet's remains to the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department to be disposed of in a specially designated landfill. But now more pet owners in Hong Kong prefer to have their deceased pets cremated individually and funeral ceremonies.
All for the sake of "respect".
Pet owner Edmond Tang said: "It's all about respect. Whether animals or humans, everything in the world should be cared for and treated with dignity in the last moments of life. So he chose to have his two pets, a Labrador named Blackie and a Dalmatian named Macro, cremated separately, and their ashes are now stored at home.
In order to commemorate the two departed dogs, he specially customized pet bionic felt souvenirs, which is a handicraft that can "simulate and restore" the appearance of pets before their death, and has been cherished at home.
In addition to pet funeral services, there is also a surge in the number of craftsmen and institutions specializing in pet memorabilia to meet the market demand, and these craftsmen and institutions have created a wide variety of pet memorials, including personalized paw prints, jewelry, carved memorial plaques, hand paintings, pet ashes sculptures, etc., to capture the precious and unique essence of each pet.
Calvin Yau, founder of PPSG, said the company currently has about 30 employees, including pet morticians and souvenir makers, and the number of employees continues to grow.
In Hong Kong, the number of pet owners has been increasing, and people's sense of respect and reverence for pets is also growing. As a result, our business has been growing steadily. Calvin Yau said.
According to a survey report by the National Bureau of Statistics, in the fourth quarter of 2010, about 250,000 households in Hong Kong kept cats and dogs, accounting for 10 percent of all households in Hong Kong6%。According to a 2022 survey by Rakuten Insights, about 35% of Hong Kong respondents currently own at least one pet. Although pet funeral parlors have been present in the Hong Kong market for more than 20 years, in recent years there has been a diversification of services, such as religious farewell ceremonies and biocremation services.
As a result, Calvin Yau said that the pet funeral industry is becoming more competitive, with more and more players entering the market. He added, "The capital threshold is relatively low, and with about HK$3 million in start-up capital, you can start a business." ”
In order to provide more services, PPSG plans to provide a new artificial intelligence technology that will allow deceased pets to be "reborn" in the virtual world, and even realize scenarios where owners can talk to deceased pets in the virtual world.
However, at present, pet funeral directors do not have relevant assessment certificates, and the industry also lacks departmental supervision. According to reports, some pet funeral companies in the Hong Kong SAR will privately send pet remains to garbage disposal sites instead of cremating them separately in order to make more profits.
Huge potential and business opportunities
In China, pet funeral services are still in the early stages of development, and with the surge in the number of domestic pet owners, the demand for pet funerals is also growing. In 2019, in Zhaoqing, Guangdong, four young entrepreneurs founded a pet funeral memorial brand called "Tianpet", and since then, Tianpet's pet hospice business has expanded to 12 cities, with more than 100 front-end comforters and pet funeral directors.
Mr. Ding Xiaowei, the founder of Tianpet, said that he is full of confidence in the future development potential of the pet funeral industry, "Pet funeral services have not yet gained a firm foothold in China, but the market potential is huge, especially with the younger generation's changing views on the role of pets", adding that since 2019, pet funeral has been steadily increasing at an annual growth rate of 5%.
Tianpet currently has about 30 professional pet funeral directors, most of whom are post-90s or even post-00s, which indicates the younger generation.
is more willing to accept new things, and even plans to engage and struggle for pet funeral directors as a lifelong career.
Ding Xiaowei said, "Tianpet is not only involved in the business of pet funeral, but also by cooperating with mature craftsmen and independent designers in different fields, we will expand the brand business to the field of pet memorial products." ”
He also mentioned the most important point, "The emotional market is the core focus of every industry in the future." ”
Original article contact author: grace@chinadailyhkcom