CHICOPEE — Pet parents now have a local, eco-friendly option for aftercare. Located in Chicopee, Paws Finding Peace offers water-based cremation for those who have had to say goodbye to their beloved pet companion.
Paws Finding Peace was founded by Dr. Lauren Atkins in 2018.
She explained, “I am a veterinarian and I started doing at-home euthanasia about six years ago. I kind of evolved doing at-home euthanasia because there was this service that was offered in lots of other places but not really here.”
For the past six years they have offered at-home euthanasia, allowing pet families to say goodbye in the comfort of their own home.
Atkins said, “I wanted to ensure that the same amount of attention, love, kindness and dignity that was given to the pets at home was extended throughout the cremation process.”
Before opening the aftercare center in Chicopee, Atkins explained that pets would often be transported out-of-state for cremation.
Atkins said she partnered with a large crematorium that most of the clinics around here use, which is a corporate owned crematorium, and the pets would go to Rhode Island or Connecticut for cremation before returning home.
Now the center allows families to not have to worry about that. Atkins said the aftercare center opened about 10 months ago.
Atkins said, “We wanted to create an after-care center and cremation practices that kind of matched the services that we were already offering people. We try to schedule people coming in with their deceased pets at a time when no one else is here so we have a couple rooms so there’s privacy.”
In Massachusetts, there are three pet aftercare centers offering water-based cremation: Paws Finding Peace in Chicopee, Petrichor Aquamation in Woburn and Pawsitive Memories in Sandwich.
Water-based cremation has been around for decades but is more popular in states such as California and Colorado.
Water-based cremation is also known as aquamation or alkaline hydrolysis and is a combination of gentle water flow, temperature and alkalinity are used to accelerate the breakdown of organic material. It’s the same process that occurs as part of nature’s course when a body is laid to rest in the soil.
Atkins explained, “A lot of people choose to do the water-base cremation just because it’s a lot more eco-friendly. Cremation historically has a lot of emissions that uses a lot of fossil fuels, and it pollutes the air with the smoke and so in Colorado and California, water base cremation is a lot more popular because it is better for the environment. For us that is an added bonus.”
With traditional fire-based cremation, the bones that are left after the process are ground and given back to the family as ashes. With water-based cremation, the bones that are left after the process are also ground and given back to the family.
Since water-based cremation is so gentle, there are more ashes returned. Because this is such a gentle process, it is often preferred by pet families with small pets such as guinea pigs, rabbits, bearded dragons and birds.
Since opening the aftercare center at 904 Meadow St. in Chicopee, Paws Finding Peace has helped hundreds of local pet families.
Pet parent Kim Bonacker said, “They will always be my first choice for our little angels. Thank you for everything you do, this world needs more amazing people like you. No request is ever too big or too small and every time I have needed their services it’s made a difficult time so much easier to process.”
To learn more about Paws Finding Peace, readers can visit the website at www.pawsfindingpeace.com.
Atkins said it be best for someone looking to use their services to visit the website and call first. They are open seven days a week and also offer grief resources.
“We’re proud of what we do and happy to be welcomed to the community,” Atkins said. “We know everyone we’re talking to is grieving and struggling with a loss, so we treat people with the same compassion when they come in here.”
