Pet crematorium operating for six years seeks permission to continue

Twm Owen, Local Democracy Reporter

A pet cremation service that has been running for nearly six years needs permission to continue operating beyond the end of 2026.

Pets at Rest has been providing a cremation service for pet owners since 2020 after the idea came to owner, and operator, Ken Dowding at his own mother’s cremation.

He set the business up shortly afterwards but has only been given three-year temporary planning permissions with the consent last renewed in December 2023.

Pet lover Mr Dowding has now applied for a variation of the condition to allow him to operate from his base at the Forgehammer Industrial Estate in St Dials, Cwmbran for a further three years from this December.

“I have to reapply every three years,” said Mr Dowding: “I think it could be because there is housing nearby, and people did complain about it at first, but the machine is all regulated.”

A carpenter and joiner by trade Mr Dowding, who lives in Henllys, Cwmbran, said the cremation service can help owners come to terms with the loss of their family pet.

“Lots will bring their pets in placed in a nice basket, some will have a little service, and I will leave them in the reception area to spend time with their pet as they say their final goodbyes.

“People don’t just bring their dog or cat in and walk away, it is similar to a funeral.”

While pet owners may have traditionally buried family pets in their gardens there are now stricter rules in place around doing so while pet burials can only be done on private land and tenants are unlikely to have permission to bury pets in their gardens.

“I grew up with dogs in Bettws, in Newport, and I’d buried dogs in our garden from a young age,” said the 63-year-old who has two shih tzu dogs at home: “One was born blind and is blind as a bat but doesn’t know any different.

“My mother died, in 2020, and at the funeral I was in the crematorium and I don’t know why the thought came to me, ‘you don’t hear about pet cremations’ and that’s what got me into it, sat at my mother’s funeral.”

Realising there was a likely demand in Torfaen and the wider area around Newport and Caerphilly Mr Dowding set up and still uses his skills to make urns with owners having to take their pets ashes away with them.

Most pets cremated by Pets at Rest are cats or dogs but Mr Dowding said: “I’ve also had lizards, gerbils and hamsters as long as they are pets and not wild, we’re not allowed to cremate anything from the wild woods.”

The application to vary the condition is being considered by Torfaen Borough Council’s planning department and information on how much noise is generated by the cremation machine and a declaration it has been operated in line with previous permissions has been included with the application.

---

Get more trusted Welsh news

Choose Nation.Cymru as a preferred source in Google News to see more of our journalism.