Delay to Brussels' first pet crematorium
Plans for a first regional animal crematorium in the Brussels neighbourhood of Schaerbeek have stalled as a result of the recent municipal elections. “The lease contract with the municipality of Schaerbeek is still not completely finalised and due to
Plans for a first regional animal crematorium in the Brussels neighbourhood of Schaerbeek have stalled as a result of the recent municipal elections.
“The lease contract with the municipality of Schaerbeek is still not completely finalised and due to the municipal elections the negotiations are at a standstill,” Xavier Godart, director of the intercommunal organisation Cremabru, told Bruzz.
Cremabru manages the 90-year-old Uccle crematorium in Brussels and also the new regional crematorium in Evere, which opened earlier this year. With Evere’s fully operational, the intercommunal organisation can focus on its long-standing plan for the construction of an animal crematorium, estimated to cost €1.5 million.
The Brussels parliament unanimously adopted a 2008 resolution by René Coppens (Open VLD) asking the government to investigate the feasibility of an animal crematorium, with the assignment eventually ending up with Cremabru.
A site was found two years ago and the Schaerbeek municipality agreed to build the animal crematorium in the municipal cemetery “but on a separate plot so there can be no confusion,” Godart clarified.
The intercommunal plans to build a crematorium where 5,000 small pets, mainly dogs and cats, can be cremated every year. A memorial park with a scattering field is also planned next door, but all progress has stalled.
“We have to conclude a 99-year long lease with the municipality of Schaerbeek, but there are still two small points that have not been finalised,” Godart said, one of those being the question of who bears the remediation costs for the lightly polluted site.
“Due to the municipal elections, there will be no further negotiations for the time being. We will wait until the new alderman in charge is known. The construction of the crematorium in Evere also took much longer than initially thought.”
Only once the lease is signed can specifications be drawn up and an architect and contractor sought.
Benjamin Pendville, who runs the first animal funeral home in Brussels after his father founded it 30 years ago, said the need for a pet crematorium in the Belgian capital was high.
“We handle 400 to 500 individual cremations of small pets, dogs and cats, but also mice, hamsters and the occasional bird, every year, as well as several hundred collective cremations,” Pendville said, noting that the funeral home currently directs those seeking cremations to places in Flanders and Wallonia, which together have more than 20 such crematoriums.
“It’s difficult for our Brussels customers. They face three-quarters of an hour or an hour of travelling time.”
Usually the customers take the ashes home with them afterwards, Pendville said: “They then often have them processed, for example in a piece of jewellery or key ring.”
Those who want can also take the ashes to the animal cemetery in Ixelles, which has a scattering meadow and an urn site. At the animal cemetery in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, dogs and cats can also be buried in the ground, but this is only possible if the owners live in the municipality or neighbouring Woluwe-Saint-Lambert
Being cremated together with your pet is not allowed in the Brussels region, Godart said.
In Flanders, however, people can be buried with their previously deceased and cremated pet since the beginning of this year. The urn containing the animal's ashes is placed in their owner's grave.
Outgoing minister Bernard Clerfayt, who was responsible for animal welfare, also wanted to make this possible in Brussels and had it inscribed in the new animal welfare code, but the legislature failed to get approved.
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