Leilani will be with her family forever, Anita Pace
All she has to do is look at the little white dog perched on her fireplace mantle.
It may seem creepy to some, but more pet owners are opting to preserve their animals forever by having them freeze-dried and mounted. In fact, the premiere episode of Jerry Seinfeld's new show, "The Marriage Ref," featured a couple's spat over the husband's choice to have his dead Boston terrier "stuffed" and displayed in the living room. (The judges sided with the wife.)
For the owners who never want to let go, at least 20 companies in the U.S. offer "pet preservation," the industry term for freeze-drying the animal's body while maintaining its size, shape and general appearance.
The husband-and-wife team that runs Perpetual Pet in Keyser, W.Va. call freeze drying the "loving and lasting alternative." Some people don't believe in cremation, and burial is not always an option, the company's website says. There may not be a pet cemetery in the area, or "perhaps you know that you might someday move from your home, and can't bear the thought of leaving your pet behind," the company says.
Not everyone is prepared emotionally to see their pet every day and be reminded that it will never wake up. But Pace, who lives in Oregon, knew she didn't want to cremate or bury her beloved dog. She searched for "taxidermy" on the Internet and found an article about freeze-drying.
So Pace shipped Leilani to Anthony Eddy's Wildlife Studio in Slater, Mo. Seven months later, she got the little dog back.
"Strange as it seems, her little body is a comfort to me," she told Paw Nation. Pace said that she sometimes looks at Leilani and the dog looks so lifelike she thinks, 'How did she get on the mantle?'"
Eddy's preserves between 100 and 150 pets each year, an increase of at least 60 percent over the past decade, pet specialist Joe Pycke said. The company freeze dries some rabbits, birds, and reptiles, but most of the pets are cats and dogs.
The process at Eddy's involves the removal of organs, replacement of the eyes with glass replicas, silicone injections and more. The animal is prepared in one of two positions – laying down with its head up, or head down with eyes closed. Then the animal is placed in a freeze-dryer to remove all the moisture. The freeze-drying takes from six months to a year and can cost thousands of dollars, depending on the size of the animal.
"It comforts the customer to know this is becoming more the norm," Pycke said. "A lot of them say 'I'm not going to tell my friends I'm having this pet preserved,' and then they get in here and see all the pets preserved, and think, 'Wow, I'm not the only one doing this. Maybe it's not weird."
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Everyone does different things with their money. This freeze drying, to me, is Such a waste of money, and a cry for attention from the owner. The animal is nothing more than a shell when dead. It sounds like a freak circus in a small degree. If I were in their shoes, I would Most certainly send the money to animal rescue group, if not in cash, in food and supplies for the homeless animals. I would start my Own animal cruelty crew, and go out to find those animals with the chokers litterly eating into their necks, etc. As a matter of fact, half of my will $ is already dedicated to just that sort of action. Call me a fool, but it makes a lot more sense than freeze drying pets. That is simply rediculous.
I think to each is own. While it does seem a lil creepy after I lost my best friend a few months ago I actually had a flash thought of something like this but resulted in cremation and a beautiful wooden urn. Something which I told myself that alone I would NEVER do...keep ashes pfft...and now...well now I have ashes.
Everyone deals with it in their own way and while I think freeze drying would be more painful to see than not seeing...everyone reacts differently.
It does seem extreme but who knows. I would save my dogs ashes I think.
i have the ashes of my pug, who died 9-11 2002 . i just cant leth her go it seems. i have a sleeping pug on top of the urn.
I think it's a bit on the creepy side people do that to their dog or cat, but I understand why. I recently lost my bearded dragon whom I had for 9 years, and she simply died of old age. I love her very much and I think about doing something like that. But to see her physical body there will not comfort me because she's not alive. I gave her the best care anybody could possibly give. She had a GOOD LIFE! I won't be able to bury her until she starts decomposing, which I eventually will do, and then mark her grave with a statue of St. Francis of Assisi.