In the last thread I heard a lot of mention of how hard it would be to make money cremating pets at $20 each. I'm not sure where some people are getting their pets cremated, but the last time I had to do it, it cost almost $500 by the time I got the little urn back. Perhaps I should have shopped around, but I just went with whoever my vet recommended.
I looked one company up to see if I could see their price list, and the price I paid wasn't that far off.
http://www.petsatpeace.ca/Pricing_for_website_page.pdf
According to their price list it costs over $200 just for a budgie or hamster. And a private cremation with the family present (to make sure you get your own pets remains back?) starts at over $500. Each.
As an aside, there is an interesting Freakenomics podcast that discusses pet cremation at length, and one of the statistics that they mention is that most people who get their pets cremated, even when specifically paying for individual cremation, often end up with an assortment of ashes from different animals in their urn.
I could see this service being valuable to people whose pets died at home, and who may not have a property where they can bury their deceased pets.
All my opinion only.
This is from the Hamilton/Burlilngton SPCA:
[h=2]Cremation services[/h] The HBSPCA offers affordable pet cremation services.
The remains of your much-loved companion will be returned to you in an urn within 10 days. Prices start at $130 for individual cremation and $24 for communal cremation.
For cremation information please contact 905 574-7722 ext. 0
https://hbspca.com/services/pet-bereavement/
DM supposedly was interested in serving veterinarian clients, rather than the public; veterinarians provide the service of taking care of the remains of deceased pets for their clients, for a fee, and so whatever they would pay to the cremation service they currently use for that, they would tack on an amount and bill their customer, so that they too can make money in their business.
Therefore, DM's pricing would need to be lower than the public would pay, since he is in effect providing a wholesale service, and lower than what a veterinary service is already paying, in order to get the business over to him from whichever service the vets are presently using.
A few years ago I had my vet at the time take care of dealing with my dead cat, and I was charged $50. I would hazard a guess that the vet might double whatever the fee he himself is being charged by the cremation service, to look after that for me, and so I hazarded a guess at $25 his cost. Then i lowered it by $5 to allow an edge for DM's new swanky business, and it should probably be even lower, considering the veterinarians might have to send their staff outside to bring their dead out to the woods or something, to have them incinerated where their customers won't see 'the eliminator', and perhaps where the authorities won't charge DM for not having a permit to provide such a service on public lands. I mean, the authorities would likely be alerted by the public, even if in the woods, but there is less of chance in the woods than there might be in the back parking lot at night.
The more detail one considers in regard to this plan to provide mobile pet cremation to veterinarians, the more I find it is ludicrous and not even possible in the real world. As another member posted, such services already exist, however the actual incineration needs to happen on the business' own land, which is likely going to have to be in the country somewhere, and not in a city, and my guess is that a permit might be required even for that.
So really, what good is having the incinerator on a mobile trailer, if it can't be used anywhere except for at his own property? If he is providing a pickup service for the frozen bodies, he doesn't need to drag his incinerator with him to do that, however he *would* require a refrigerated cube van or something, which is yet an additional cost. I think we know enough about DM to know that he wouldn't be performing this service himself, so add in the cost of an employee or two. And then the fact that he is dealing in wholesale, as opposed to retail amounts. If a business plan had in fact been done, my guess is that it was a doomed venture, and that the $22K spent on it to date was a complete waste of money, unless of course he had other uses in mind as well.
Then I think about the different stories told to different people (going into business WITH the uncle, going into the pet cremation business to serve veterinarian clients, needing an incinerator for his MRO business), and why one would tell different stories, if there was nothing wrong with the true/real story. DM was likely intelligent enough to know that in reality, he could NOT go door to door with his incinerator, and that if he said such a thing to the salesman, the salesman would have undoubtedly set him straight and enlightened him about by-laws and such. Just a guess.
There is really only one service I can think of which could potentially bring in a respectable profit in the mobile animal incineration business, and that business is illegal. I get the feeling that Sachak hasn't quite caught on yet that his client can tend to tell fibs, and different stories to different folks, depending on who he is talking to at the time, and that even though Sachak may believe that he is laying *one* story to rest, he seems to forget there are other stories to deal with as well.
A pet cremation business dealing with the deceased pets of members of the public is a different story, and it is possible that *that* business *could* be profitable, but yet that business has not ever been mentioned out of the 3 stories that *have* been heard so far. And personally, I can't see DM providing such a service where he would need to be compassionate and deal with all kinds of pet owners in mourning on an individual basis. It seems from what JV has indicated, that he may not be able to rely on any of his friends to be employed in operating that business for him either.
Just my thoughts.
