Options can be limited for what happens after the death of a beloved pet. Owners may choose to bury their animal or cremate them.
A Lansing business is the first in the state to offer a more natural way of saying goodbye to a pet.
It might sound morbid, but Drew Thursten has worked with dead animals since 2020. It started with taxidermy.
“I’ve always been an outdoorsman, hunting and fishing and stuff like that,” Thursten said. “It was during the pandemic. It dawned on me that it was something I hadn’t really thought about ever trying. I thought maybe I’ll try it a little bit and just kind of found interest or enjoyment in it.”
But when he started to lose his ability to see due to a medical condition, he decided to make a career change.
The experience of his dog Bryce dying when he was in his thirties has stuck with him for years.
Thursten chose something that could help others with the grieving process for when their pets die.
“It’s a lot bigger deal than people realize, you know, people think, well, it’s just a pet … Well, a lot of times most people spend more time with their pets than they do their human counterparts,” Thursten said.
While many pet owners use flame cremation after their animals die, Thursten stumbled on an alternative that uses water instead of fire. He opened Nature's Way Pet Aquamation in north Lansing last fall.
Speaking at his business, he says it’s become more than just a job.
“It was like something that I felt called to do,” Thursten said.
The aquamation process is also known as alkaline hydrolysis. Thursten uses a chemical solution that’s made up mostly of water. The mixture is then heated up to 204 degrees Fahrenheit. The high temperature speeds up the process of natural decomposition and takes only 18 hours for the body to fully decompose.
“In the 18 hours, that dissolves all the organic tissue from the pet, and what is left is a powdery substance that’s similar to the ashes you would normally get back from a flame cremation,” Thursten said.
According to the Cremation Association of North America, alkaline hydrolysis uses significantly less fuel and has an overall lower carbon footprint than traditional cremation and burial, making it a more environmentally friendly option.
And it’s not just common pets like dogs and cats that can go through this process.
“We’ve done so far a parakeet, fancy rats, a hamster, guinea pigs,” Thursten said.
Through pet aquamation, owners will also get 20-30% more of their pet's remains than a typical flame cremation.
“They’re more pure. They’re white. They’re cleaner. They’re not the gray-black, gritty ash that people are sometimes familiar with,” Thursten said.
On average, Thursten’s business works with about a few dozen people a month who have recently had a pet die.
Like Emily Allen whose family cat Dallas died at age 15 earlier this year.
“We knew that we wanted to keep his remains with us, but we weren’t sure what all of our options were to do that,” Allen said.
She says using water instead of fire felt like a more natural and gentler way to have Dallas remains come home with her.
“We would call places, when we would ask about their services, we just kind of felt a coldness with just the whole process, but from the moment that we talked to Drew, his compassionate and calm energy immediately just made us feel at ease with the whole process,” Allen said.
Allen adds Pet Aquamation brought her and her family peace.
“I feel like that is the only option that I choose from this point forward for all of my family pets,” Allen said.
This is exactly why Thursten says he started his business. It’s something not a lot of people think about, and it can be sad but it’s important.
“No matter what, no matter how many people we can help I don’t want to lose the personal connection that we have with everyone,” Thursten said.
In the future, Thursten is hoping to provide a grieving space at his business for those wanting to spend more time with their pets before the aquamation process.