THIS IS NOT A NICHE
THE PET FUNERAL SECTOR IS SURGING
By Dominique Temmerman, International Business Developer
Funeral by Peleman, Belgium
The numbers are impossible to ignore. The global pet
funeral services market reached an estimated USD
1.8 billion in 2024 and is projected to nearly double
to USD 3.9 billion by 2033 – growing at a compound
annual growth rate of over 8% annually. In Europe
alone, the market generated close to USD 600 million
in 2024, with an expected CAGR of 11% through 2030.
This is not a niche. This is one of the fastest-growing
segments in the entire death care industry.
What is driving this growth? The answer is almost
universally the same across every market and every
study: the humanisation of pets. Across Europe and
beyond, dogs, cats, and other companion animals
are no longer regarded as property – they are family
members. They sleep in our beds, appear in our family
portraits, and are mourned with the same depth of
feeling as any human loss. When they die, their owners
do not want a transaction. They want a farewell that
reflects what that animal truly meant.
Cremation dominates and that creates an
opportunity
Within the pet funeral sector, cremation has become
the dominant service by a significant margin. In 2025,
cremation accounted for over 66% of the global pet
funeral services market – a share that continues to
grow. Private cremation in particular is gaining ground,
as pet owners increasingly want their animal’s remains
returned to them rather than handled communally.
This shift toward private cremation has a direct
consequence for the memorial products sector: the
urn, the memorial box, the keepsake vessel has never
been more central to the customer experience. It is
the physical object the family takes home. It is what
sits on the mantelpiece, the bookshelf, or the garden
wall. And increasingly, pet owners are asking a very
simple question when they receive it: does this look
like my animal?
Personalisation: the fastest-growing
segment in the market
Market research consistently identifies memorial
products and personalised services as the fastest-
growing category within pet funerals. Pet owners are
actively seeking engraved plaques, photo tributes,
custom keepsakes, and memorial objects that are
uniquely theirs. The generic and the interchangeable
are losing ground to the specific and the personal.
At Peleman, we have been working alongside funeral
professionals for decades, and we see this shift clearly
in our own market. Our response has been to develop
a range of sublimated photo plates – full-colour,
photorealistic prints in over 150 different shapes – that
can be applied directly onto any memorial product: an
urn, a wooden box, a display panel, a garden stone.
The photo plate does not replace the memorial vessel.
It completes it. It transforms a beautiful object into an
unmistakably personal one.
A family brings a photograph. Perhaps it is Marley
running through the park. Perhaps it is their cat curled
in a favourite spot. Within hours, that image – printed
with the full richness and detail that only sublimation
can deliver – is part of a memorial that could belong
to no one else. The urn manufacturer’s craftsmanship
and the personalisation layer work together. One
makes the object. The other makes it theirs.
28
No. 114 – 2/2026 | THANOS MAGAZINE
MAIN TOPIC
Photo: Funeral by Peleman Press Service