A Briton has said he is willing to establish a pet crematorium in Shenzhen after reading a Shenzhen Daily report about the difficulties of carrying on pet burials in Shenzhen.

Alistair Carroll, who has been involved in the setting up of incineration plants for over 30 years, and even installed plants in Hong Kong during the 1970s and 1980s, read a Shenzhen Daily report about the lack of pet burial and cremation services when he was at the 2005 Canton Fair sourcing urns and caskets for the ashes of pets.

In a letter to the Shenzhen Daily, Carroll said a Hong Kong engineer who worked with him was also interested and would ¡°be happy to assist in the manufacturing and servicing of such plants.¡±

The pet cremation service would be welcomed in Shenzhen, a city with at least 200,000 pets, said Zeng Fanhua, secretary general of the Shenzhen pet association. Zeng said he was willing to help Carroll start the business.

There is no pet cremation service in Shenzhen. The Shenzhen Funeral Home does not have facilities for pets. ¡°We cannot provide cremation service for pets, because people will be unhappy to have their relatives cremated at the same place as pets,¡± said Chen Haiyun, head of the city¡¯s funeral management office.

Dead pets are a headache for both pet owners and the urban management authorities, said Zeng. As there is no cemetery for pets in Shenzhen, many people simply throw dead pets into dustbin, or bury them secretly.

Wen Liqiang, an urban management official, said dead pets could pose a great threat to the environment if not disposed of properly. Burying dead animals in public places is illegal, he said.

Very few companies provide cremation or burial services for pets in China, where raising pets was not popular until recent years. There is no regulation on how people should deal with dead pets, except for a 1998 law banning people from randomly disposing of animals that die from diseases or unclear reasons.

Editor: Yan