HAMLET — When Doris Carlisle took her deceased dog, a chihuahua named Buddy, to the Richmond County Animal Shelter for cremation, she expected the remains would be soft, dark gray ash. What she received has her concerned.
“This isn’t right,” she said. “The ashes aren’t right. They look like gravel or broken up seashell. It’s just not right.”
Carlisle still has the remains of another dog, Tippy, who was cremated seven years ago when the shelter was operating under the Humane Society of Richmond County. Tippy’s ashes have a markedly different appearance, all of it a fine gray powder with no large bits of bone.
“I received Buddy’s remains Friday before last,” Carlisle said. “I called Rick Sago, who is supposed to be over the whole animal shelter, that next Monday. I left my cell phone number. The lady asked what it was pertaining to, and I told her it was about my dog’s ashes where I had him cremated. She said she would give him the message.”
Sago returned her call on Monday, and Carlisle explained that she was not happy with the consistency of her dog’s remains and wanted to know why they are so different from the ones she received seven years ago after Tippy’s death. She said she offered to bring the remains for him to examine, but Sago responded that he felt sure what she received was what she was supposed to have.
“I have two cremated pets,” Sago told the Daily Journal. “They both came to me in urns and I never opened them up and looked at them, so I don’t know what they look like. But the machine used in the cremations was there when we got the place and is the same one we’ve been using. We actually had the machine relined last year.”
Carlisle also reached out to the Richmond County Animal Shelter. She called and explained the situation and said she was told she could bring back the remains and that the shelter would attempt the cremation again to get a finer ash. Carlisle did not return the remains to the shelter.
Shelter director Bonnie Wilde acknowledged the call, saying a secretary had spoken with Carlisle.
“I don’t know what to say without knowing more about what’s going on,” Wilde said. “Today is the first I’ve heard of it. But the point is, I sympathize with her. I know what it’s like to lose a pet, to lose a baby like that, because these pets become peoples’ family. For pet lovers, it is just like losing a person. I feel that way.”
Wilde said she would like to “make things right” for Carlisle, but could not speak to whether anything was actually wrong with Buddy’s remains.
Henry Houston, an employee at Paws, Whiskers & Wags pet crematory in Charlotte, explained the cremation process.
“The larger bone fragments, basically that’s what the remains are,” he said. “Because in cremation everything is going away but the bones. Then we place them into a processing unit where they are ground into more like a powder. When the blades are new it grinds the remains into more of a powder, but they get dull fast, so normally yes, the remains are bones.”
Houston said the company he works for has only been in the Charlotte area for a few years, but its home office in Georgia has been around for nearly 12 years.
“We follow the standard guidelines that are in place for human cremation,” Houston said. “And we are full-disclosure as to what we do. People are always welcome to come in and see what we do, and we only cremate one pet at a time. We don’t have multiple cremations. We specialize in private cremation.”
Houston said that he began working for Paws, Whiskers & Wags after visiting as a customer.
“I saw how much they cared about the pets, and that’s how I feel about them myself,” he said. “The owner must have noticed how important people and their pets were to me, that my heart was in it. It’s a very caring place.”
Reach reporter Melonie McLaurin at 910-817-2673 and follow her on Twitter @meloniemclaurin.
