All the studies raise fears of a major replacement in France, where pets already outnumber us two-legged by 10 million, still counted at nearly 68 million. So it is not surprising to observe an initiative like Audrey and Evan Thebaud, happy owners of a funeral home like no other.
In January 2023, this couple in their thirties created the company Divinité funeraire (1) in Anglet. In addition to the funeral home and traditional undertakers, since September 2024 they have offered services dedicated to pets. Among the deceased who are accompanied here are the traditional cat-dog couple, but also rodents, birds and other reptiles. A first in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, as All Saints Day approaches, this commemoration for all the deceased without exception.
Mortuary toilet
Audrey and Evan are happy parents, but also owners of a dog and two cats, full-fledged members of their tribe. In a previous life, Audrey was a hairdresser, while her husband already wore the dark costume of a funeral director then employed in the interior of the Basque Country. There, in the realm of the flamboyant pigeon, his idea was not unanimous. But in the city, he has long believed in this animal possibility. An opportunity that was taken advantage of at a time when the Covid crisis made many employees think. And so Youki and Félix will be kept awake, then buried or cremated thanks to Funerary Divinity. In other words, only embalming and blessing remain the hallmarks of man.
“Taxidermy is more or less limited to hunting trophies. As for embalming animals, it is not allowed in France, confirms Audrey. Spain thought about it. But currently embalmers do not do this. “And this is why your animal’s wakefulness should not exceed an hour or two: “After its death, the animal must quickly return to our funeral home, says Evan. Because it will decompose and do so much faster than a human. »
Post mortem, the furry or scaly friend will only be groomed before the aftermath. Then it is in his body bag that he will join a temporary cold cell before his final resting place. The final choice is then left to the bereaved master, between a custom-made casket or cremation.
Dust
If a doggy, born dust, needs to return to dust, go to the San Sebastian crematorium, which specializes in animals. “Bordeaux does too, but San-Sé is still the closest place to have them cremated,” Evan points out. Depending on the master’s finances, said cremation will be collective or individual. “If he intends to recover the ashes, the owner can put them in an urn or scatter them,” the couple specifies.
The chest option complicates things – a bit -. Because the burial of an animal by its owner remains prohibited. “We’re the only ones who can do that,” Evan says. “The remains must weigh less than 40 kilos, lie more than 30 meters from a water point and a residence, more than 1.20 meters underground and be covered with lime, on no other ground than the owner’s. “Of course France has some animal cemeteries. But not here, since that of Bayonne experienced its swan song at the end of the 2010s.
Evan and Audrey also know that the unauthorized burial continues. At home, almost anywhere. Without coffin. Or even downright “old fashioned”, after “euthanasia” with ether. However, much more often the couple observes an unshakable attachment to the animal. Even a total humanization of it. The death business seems to have a bright future ahead of it.
(1) Funeral divinity, 115 avenue d’Espagne, in Anglet. Tel., 05 59 26 63 07.
