Crematory Scandals Are Just as Hurtful When the Victims Are Pets
Over the last few years, the deathcare profession has been rocked by more than a few crematory scandals. Whether driven by greed, laziness, or a combination of both, the owners of these establishments chose to betray the families who had entrusted loved ones to them. They treated bodies with disrespect and impropriety, accepted money for services they did not perform, and left families with bags of concrete and a hefty dose of trauma and regrets.
While memories of 2023’s Return to Nature discovery and last month’s Davis Mortuary disgrace may come to mind, they’re far from the only recent cremation-related crimes — they’re just the ones involving human remains.
A terrible timeline
Pet crematories across the country have made headlines this year for the exact same reasons as Return to Nature, Davis Mortuary, and of course, Tri-State Crematory — leading families to believe that they held the cremated remains of a loved one whose body had actually been improperly disposed:
April 2025 | Eternity Pet Memorial, PIttsburgh, PA: Owner Patrick Vereb was charged with “improper disposal of ‘thousands of dogs and cats’ for which owners paid for cremations, burials, returns of ashes, and other services, stealing over $650,000 from customers between 2021 and 2024.”
April 2025 | Loving Pet Care Crematory Services, Catonsville, MD: Owners Rodney and Yalanda Ward face charges of felony theft and conspiracy to commit theft plus 56 counts of malicious destruction of property after pet owners reported paying “up to $500 for bags of sand and concrete, rather than their animals’ ashes” over the last three years.
August 2025 | Compassionate Care Pet Crematory Services, Kingsland, GA: Owner Nader “John” Rayan and his wife Amanda were arrested and charged with two counts of theft by deception after “mishandling” pet remains. They may face additional counts, as investigators are still uncovering animal remains on their property. In 2016, Nader Rayan was sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to organized fraud and other charges related to his mishandling of human remains and charging for services he didn’t perform at a Florida funeral home and cemetery.
September 2025 | Peaceful Memories, LLC, Colorado Springs, CO: Animal Law Enforcement and local police are currently investigating this pet crematory and its owner after discovering animal remains in a storage unit rented in the name of crematory owner Marcus Williams.
Same, but different
Pets often become as beloved by their owners as any other member of the family, and their deaths are equally mourned. Likewise, more and more people are opting for private cremation services or supervised interment in a dedicated pet cemetery over the traditional backyard burial or mass disposition in an animal services incinerator. The demand for professional pet funeral services has skyrocketed, especially in the United States and Canada. According to multiple sources, North America dominated the pet funeral services market in 2024 with a 36.89% share of a $1.97 billion global market size. That number is predicted to grow to $3.75 billion by 2030.
This rapidly expanding market, the potential for a lucrative revenue stream, and the similarities of pet cremation services to those offered to humans is leading more and more funeral homes and crematories to extend their expertise to pet families. Many pet parents want the same opportunities (and products, services, and venues) to celebrate and memorialize the lives of their littlest loved ones as they would their human counterparts. It also doesn’t hurt that pet cremators are operated in the same way as those intended for humans, and the two machines can be purchased from and serviced by the same suppliers.
Equal grief, not equal justice
One other commonality — and perhaps the most important one — is that the grief animal owners experience after the loss of a pet. And just like the families who were deceived by the Hallfords at Return to Nature or Brent Marsh at Tri-State Crematory, pet families are having to deal with the compounded grief, anger, and insult of knowing that the remains of their beloved animal were not treated with dignity and respect.
“This has been a nightmare for me. I can’t sleep. At nighttime, when I close my eyes, I see my dog, laying on the side of the road,” Beverly Rassen told WBALTV. Rassen had hired Loving Care Pet Funerals in Catonsville, Maryland to handle the cremation of her dog, Rusty.
A woman attending a community-wide memorial for the thousands of pets mishandled by Patrick Vereb of Eternity Pet Memorial in Pittsburgh shared similar sentiments.
“I was like, ‘Oh, my God, oh my God, he took my baby, and threw him away.’ It’s not right, how could somebody do that, how could somebody do that,” she said, according to KDKA News.
Although the majority of families who find themselves victims of criminal crematory operators demand justice, there’s no “abuse of a corpse” equivalent for animals. The most they can hope for from the court system are financial counts like those listed above — usually some form of theft or fraud — and perhaps some destruction charges that treat their pets like property.
But at least one group of pet parents is working to change that. Members of the Facebook group “The Victims of Vereb Funeral Home and Eternity Pet Memorial” are organizing petitions advocating for stronger regulations for pet deathcare. Two of these victims have also filed a class action lawsuit seeking financial damages from Vereb. Still, no amount of money will make up for the pain Vereb and the other crematory owners caused these pet parents.
“The fact is, no matter what has happened with their own bodies,” one of Vereb’s victims said during the memorial vigil, “the love you have for those pets is a sign of their ongoing life with you.”
