State lawmakers working to add regulations to pet cremation industry
Pennsylvania lawmakers are trying to add regulations to the pet cremation industry to protect animals.
Emotions have been running high since Patrick Vereb, the owner of Vereb Funeral Home and Eternity Pet Memorial, was charged with throwing out the bodies of over 6,500 pets and giving their owners the ashes of other animals.
State Sen. Nick Pisciottano heard about the allegations on the news.
"One of my constituents I talked to said it was like grieving her lost pet a second time," Pisciottano said.
"Once we heard of the reporting, we decided to take a look at state law and found that there's a huge gap here," he added.
The cremation of pets is not mentioned in Pennsylvania law. The industry is unregulated.
"Consumers who are taking their pets to be cremated or paying money for those services, it means a lot," he said. "There should be some protections in place to make sure that they're safe from being ripped off."
Lawmakers want law enforcement to be able to hold people accountable for not following the rules. Pisciottano said lawmakers are working on the language of the legislation now and hope to shore it up in the next few weeks.
"There's already a state law called the Unfair Trade Practices law, which really is a catch-all for all these industry-specific issues. And so, we think we're going to add another section that basically says if you're providing pet services, you have to adhere by these rules."
State lawmakers will also look to other states and see if they can use that as a guide for the language of this new legislation.
Funeral directors are regulated by the state, so lawmakers are looking at potential license removals and penalties. But they also want to hold people accountable who handle cremations but are not funeral directors.
It will also give law enforcement new options when it comes to charges against anyone who commits these crimes.
