A pet cemetery, the first in Malaysia.

Is it worth it??

Since the emergence of the internet, reading The Star has somewhat become my daily routine. It is a source of mainstream media without half of the advertisement content in it and worrying to pull over by the streets to buy a copy. As I was reading today's paper, there was an article in it which took my attention. I have to admit that it was a rather radical business idea, and I'm not sure of its acceptance, logically, but seeing Malaysians have somewhat evolved to be more 'kiasu' like their Singaporean counterparts, I think it will be a successful venture after all.

Nirvana Memorial Park, which I think is situated in semenyih , has opened up a 20 000 sq feet pet cemetery which is exclusive for dogs and cats only. The senior marketing manager of the cemetery,oops..I mean park, said that it was designed with a children's theme park in mind since most pet owners' are children. And just like any other thing in Malaysia, nothing comes free - or even cheap. You would need to fork out some RM 6800.00 to have your dead pet collected and then buried, and of course, not forgetting the Malaysian culture, there has to be an early bird special, so it's RM4800.00 now.

It is a very nice idea, at least someone has finally come to appreciate pets. But the irony of it, is the cost. As stated earlier, it was designed keeping kids in mind as they're the main pet owners, but the charges..I don't think any average kid would be able to fork out Rm6800.00 for their pets burial. Or at least I know that I would not be able to afford that. I wonder how much does it cost to buy a pet nowadays. As I remember, a friend of mine bought a pup for about RM 500.00 only a year ago. Has the price of pets inflated just like almost everything else in Malaysia?

"Personally, I don't see a point where I would, even if I could, where I would be spending so much money for my pet to be kept so far away from me, left underground to rot and decay with worms and all other kind of parasites infesting on them. I mean, common..let's be a little bit more logical here as how close are we to our pets. How many Malaysians do actually spend their money on pets. To start of with, we don't even have pet insurance. There isn't a single company out there that I know of who has pet insurance on the table being offered. And I am not going further on this, it could be my next business idea."

Being so backward in all these, I do not see the logic of jumping all the steps in between and coming up with a burial ground for pets. It is a common thing in certain developed nations to have them, but these countries would literally hang you upside down before ripping you apart if you were to abuse an animal. Although this is a very radical to be, profitable business idea, I personally feel that we are too far behind before we can come up with a cemetery of this sort.

It is more important to instill appreciation to the animals and maintaining healthy lifestyle with your pet before thinking of where to bury them and be cool about having spent so much money burying them. Come on, spend you money on you pets while they are still alive rather then when their dead, just like what you should be doing to your parents, and of course make sure the dates on the tombstone is correct to the least.

So, would I ever use this facility to let my 3 cats rest in peace in future? - I don't think so. Not only because I can't afford it, but even if I could, I would prefer to have them cremated, and to keep their ashes in an urn, close to me...