Grief is hard enough without a household quietly working out whether it can afford to do this properly. It is a conversation that goes on in a great many houses and almost never gets mentioned out loud. Heavenly Pastures arranges pet cremations for families across Platt Bridge and the surrounding area, and this page sets the money side out plainly. On the practical point, we hold no premises in Platt Bridge. There is one crematorium, at Burscough near Ormskirk, and we come out from there.
Nobody Should Go Without Because They Cannot Ask
The single most useful thing on this page is that you can ring and say plainly what you can afford, and nobody will make you feel small for it. It is a normal conversation and it happens constantly. What causes real harm is people not ringing at all because they assume the answer will be humiliating.
The Communal Option Is a Proper Choice
A communal cremation service costs meaningfully less than the alternative and it is not a lesser service. Your animal is treated with exactly the same care by exactly the same people. The difference is that several animals are cremated together and ashes are not returned to any family. Plenty of households choose it for reasons that have nothing whatever to do with cost, and choosing it because of cost is nobody’s business but yours. Nobody at this end knows or asks why a family has chosen what they have chosen, and it makes no difference at all to how an animal is handled. An individual cremation service is the option where your animal is alone throughout and their ashes come home to you, and it costs more for that reason.
What Actually Moves the Price
Three things, mainly. Which of the two services you choose, which is the largest factor by a distance. The size of your animal, since cremation is priced in weight bands. And whether we collect, since collection is charged by travel time out from Burscough. Everything is published openly on the pet cremation price list, so you can establish where you stand before speaking to a soul. That is deliberate. Being able to see the figures privately, at your kitchen table, is considerably easier than having to ask somebody over the phone while you are upset.
Bringing Your Pet to Us
If you have access to a car or somebody who can drive, bringing your animal to Burscough removes the collection element entirely, which is the simplest saving available. It is a straightforward run and you will be met properly rather than left standing. The areas we cover page shows how the collection bands fall if you would rather we came.
Timing
Anything outside ordinary weekday hours carries an extra charge. Where an animal has died in the evening and morning is bearable, waiting costs you less and takes nothing away. Keep your animal somewhere cool and quiet overnight and ring in the morning, and nothing about the arrangement is any different for the delay. If waiting would not be sensible we will say so plainly rather than talking you into a call-out you do not need.
What the Ashes Come Home In
If ashes are coming back, the plain scatter tube costs least and suits anybody who means to scatter them regardless. Nobody will steer you toward a wooden casket, and choosing the plainest thing available is not a reflection of anything. A great many families choose it and go on to scatter the ashes somewhere that mattered to them, which costs nothing at all and is what most people wanted in the first place. Nobody has ever been judged here for choosing the plainest option available.
Things That Cost Nothing At All
A clipping of fur costs nothing and can be done at home. Photographs cost nothing. Writing down the things you would otherwise forget costs nothing. The Remembrance section of this website is free and permanent, and plenty of families have left something there.
If You Are Genuinely Stuck
Where the situation is worse than tight, it is worth knowing that some animal welfare charities operate hardship schemes, and that a veterinary practice you have used for years will sometimes help or spread a cost if asked directly. Asking is not shameful. People find it far harder to ask than the person on the other end finds it to answer. It is also worth saying that this is a small family business rather than a chain with a policy, and a conversation is usually possible where a form would not allow one. Nothing about what you say on the phone is recorded anywhere or repeated to anybody, and it makes no difference to how your animal is looked after.
What Not to Do
Please do not put yourself into debt over this, and do not let anybody suggest that what you spend measures what you felt. It does not, and nobody who works in this ever thinks it does. Equally, do not bury an animal somewhere you have no right to bury them because you felt unable to ring and ask what things cost.
Speaking Plainly to Us
Ring 01704 776976 and say exactly what you can manage. You will get a small family team and a straight answer. If you would rather set it out in writing first, our contact form reaches the same people.