Rooted Up Offers Recomposition as an Alternative When Your Pet Dies

Lori Ennis
by Lori Ennis
We know that all dogs go to heaven, but what happens to their remains? A new company called Rooted Pet has launched with a way to keep your pet near and dear, in a unique way.


When your dog pet passes, what to do is often the question on many pet owners’ minds. One could opt for cremation or burial in pet cemeteries, while some turn to taxidermy and freeze-drying. Some even have turned their ashes into created diamonds.


Related: Forest Lawn First Cemetery To Open Its Gates To Pets and Their Owners


Rooted Pet is a new startup company out of Washington state that is posing another option–one that may border on a bit creepy for some, with others finding it the perfect way to honor and remember their pet. Rooted Pet is offering an option that allows your pet to decompose in organic matter that will then be used for planting something in remembrance if you wish. They call this recomposition.


Saying that it’s an option that is lacking in the world of what to do after a pet dies, General Manager of Rooted Pet Paul Tschetter says that this decomposition option uses less energy than a cremation oven and less land than a pet cemetery would, and also touches on the sentimentality of ashes to ashes, dust to dust that many will find comforting.


Tschetter says that to many pet owners, the process of cremation is hard for owners when they think about what is happening to their beloved family member. He said that composting pet bodies is what many farms use when disposing of deceased livestock, and several states have even turned to composting animals found on the road as an alternative to costly cremation or other methods of disposal.


Related: Ancient Pet Cemetery Proves Egyptians Respected Their Family Fur Members


At their farm outside of Olympia, the company composts pets, and to battle what many might worry about with dead bodies rotting outside, it’s all done inside. The pets’ bodies are put in pods that are box-like with woodchips and organic matters and it takes about six to eight weeks to fully decompose into a rich compost soil. Basically, it’s what happens if you bury Fido in the backyard, but in a much faster way and one that allows you to use that soil for a special memorial plant. He recognizes that the concept may be weird to some but to others, seems like a great way to honor your pet while considering the earth.


The company can only accept pets up to 100 pounds, and that local vets in the area have been overwhelmingly in favor of their business for both their ease and the feelings of pet owners. Once the pet has fully decomposed, the owners may choose from receiving the soil back to buying a plant that has been grown in the compost already. You can also choose to allow the compost to nourish another plant there on the farm.


Even if your pet is no longer living, there’s always a living memorial option now, says Tschetter.

Lori Ennis
Lori Ennis

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