These are fantastic questions, and ones we ourselves did not truly understand the answer to until we began researching options to add our own pet cremation services to offer continuity of care to our dedicated end-of-life veterinary practice. In late 2021, we were also becoming disheartened with changes including widespread corporate takeover and consolidation occurring within the pet aftercare industry, and it became incredibly important to us to hopefully gain better control over the cremation service methods, memorial item quality and options, and pricing in the future. That’s when our journey to build and launch Furever Faithful began. And after over 2 years of planning and hard work, we are so happy that we were able to make the dream of bringing gentle, water-based, environmentally responsible pet cremation, via aquamation, to the Greenville area a reality!
Once we learned more about aquamation, a process that has been around for decades at teaching and research institutions, we absolutely knew this was the aftercare option we were searching for. Aquamation is a cremation process (the chemical reaction is alkaline hydrolysis) that uses warm water, gentle flow, and alkaline mineral salts (KOH and NaOH) to make the same breakdown that happens over months to years in the soil (without the introduction of harmful chemicals from euthanasia medications into the environment) happen over a much shorter time period of about 20-24 hours. As you can imagine, this process is much more forgiving compared to traditional flame cremation, which is so harsh that it burns away tissue over approximately 45min to 2 hour cycles. This is why with aquamation you are able to receive up to 20% more of your pet back! What remains is the same structure (bone), dried and then processed just as with flame cremation.
Another huge deciding factor for us is that we are striving to make a positive impact on the environment we live in. Flame crematoriums consume massive amounts of fuel and have a huge carbon footprint. Aquamation’s footprint is 1/10th the size and it creates no emission of harmful greenhouse gases!! What an incredible way to keep the upstate a beautiful place for generations to come!
While no one ever wants to think about losing a loved one, we hope that knowing this kind and gentle option for their aftercare is available by a trusted, local small business helps bring a little peace to families’ hearts.
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