Colorado pet crematory disposed of animals’ bodies in landfills and mass graves, lawsuit alleges

Two northern Colorado veterinary clinics are accusing a pet cemetery and crematory of fraudulent practices, alleging in a new lawsuit that employees disposed of pets’ bodies in landfills and mass graves while billing the clinics for cremations.

Precious Memories Pet Cemetery & Crematory in Fort Collins failed to correctly provide the services it advertised, performing incorrect cremations, improperly disposing of ashes of animals and mishandling other services, including providing clay pawprint impressions of the wrong pets, according to the lawsuit filed Friday in Larimer County District Court.

The clinics — Edwards Veterinary Care in Greeley and Western Skies End-of-Life Veterinary Care, which serves parts of Colorado and Wyoming — each discovered the malpractice in 2022 and have since ended their years-long contracts with the crematory, according to the lawsuit.

“Defendants intentionally, wantonly and knowingly charged plaintiffs, separately, for services which were not provided,” Alexa McKay, an attorney with Environmental and Animal Defense who is representing the two clinics, wrote in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit notes that the International Association of Pet Cemeteries and Crematories and the Cremation Association of North America’s Standards of Practice for Cremation of Pets define private cremation as having only one pet cremated at a time. Separate cremation, on the other hand, is defined as having multiple pets cremated at once with some form of spacing between them to keep the remains separated.

Both forms of cremation involve returning the remains to the client.

On its website, Precious Memories tells potential clients, “Should you choose cremation, your pet will be treated with care, compassion and respect.”

The clinics allege in their lawsuit that not only did Precious Memories employees perform separate cremations when the clinics requested and paid for private services, but they also disposed of pet bodies and ashes in mass graves and a landfill when customers had requested group cremation. In group or communal cremation, several pets are cremated at once, but separate remains are not returned to clients.

Additionally, the lawsuit notes that bodies and ashes of pets were also disposed of at a landfill rather than being scattered on-site as advertised and requested.