Dead Pets in Freezers?

I never really put much thought in it until I realized how common the practice was, but why do people keep their dead pets in the freezer? I don't know if that's considered weird, or if I'm weird for questioning it, but keeping a dead animal companion in the freezer just seems bizarre from my view point. I'd think they would just get a necropsy if needed then bury their pet or cremate them. Why do people do it?

Indefinitely??? Yes, I think that's weird. But when I was a kid, my mom put my dead bird in the freezer so I could bury it when I got back from my dad's house. I think that's an acceptable reason to keep a pet in the freezer-to postpone a burial or cremation. Other than that, I don't think there's any other cause to do that...

I agree that indefinitely that seems weird, although we have definitely had pets in the freezer for prolonged periods (we meant to bury it before the frost but didn't and then didn't get to it until mid summer). My Mother in Law has a 1.6 acre yard, so we do our burials there.

I had my pet bird in the freezer for at least 8 years.
The bird died on a stormy day so I didn't want to go out and bury him. And then I just forgot about it.
I finally just buried him earlier this year when I cleaned out the freezer.

I currently have 2 of my favorite old first generation breeder rats in the freezer because my boyfriend put them there when they died this summer since I wasn't home at the time. I either forget that they're there or I'm too busy to bury them when I do remember. I would have been really sad if he tossed them in the trash or into the ferret cage like what I usually do with other deceased breeder rats. These two are sentimental to me and were pets.



I don't really consider myself a "Ferret Person". Yes, I have ferrets, but I'm not a "Ferret Person" if you know what I mean. But MANY ferret people stash their dead ferrets in freezers for years on purpose.
They wait to collect like 30 ferret bodies together so they can all get a discounted rate on cremation. I think that's kind of ridiculous just to save some money. Not to mention, I wouldn't want someone else s' pets mixed in with my animal's ashes. This is a super common practice in the ferret community.

Because I'm from MN and the ground is really hard to dig in the winter.

(Mortuaries used to do the same thing with people who died in the winter, gives a whole new meaning to the term 'spring planting')

I currently have a hognose snake that was dead on arrival and a ferret in my freezer. Hoggie I just didn't know what to do with really, didn't want to throw him away, can't bury anything in the winter and just haven't gotten around to doing anything with it. Ferret, we bury them in our yard. This spring however the ground heaved or something and at some point my dogs noticed. Yeah so that was icky and now I don't really want to bury anything there for awhile. I suppose I could have him cremated but I'm not really one to keep ashes around and it's quite expensive. I honestly have never heard of "ferret people" keeping bodies to get a reduced rate but I could understand it, they don't live long and many people keep a lot of ferrets, I've had 9 in under a decade and 7 dead so far. I doubt the local vet runs a reduced rate anyway though, they are money grubbing. I feed raw and a lot of whole prey, rabbits, ducks, quail so there's already a lot of dead animals and meat in my freezers.

When I was younger a fish of ours died, and I opened the freezer to it staring at me... that wasn't pleasant. My dad meant to bury it in the bush on a warm day, and didn't want it decomposing before then.





Oh, and we didn't flush it down the toilet because it was 15 inches long. :colbert2:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by GoingPostal

I honestly have never heard of "ferret people" keeping bodies to get a reduced rate but I could understand it, they don't live long and many people keep a lot of ferrets, I've had 9 in under a decade and 7 dead so far. I doubt the local vet runs a reduced rate anyway though, they are money grubbing.

---

You are so right. Ferret math. Can't have just 1. ;)
At one point, between me and my boyfriend, we had 8 personal ferrets and 5 temporary fosters within the past 2 years. 3 personals have since passed. :(

But yeah, it's a pretty common practice amongst hardcore owners and breeders. You'll see them talking about it in the forums sometimes. It was even showcased once in the 'Pursuit of Excellence' ferret documentary.
The vet doesn't do cremations. They're the middle man between the pet owner and pet mortuary. These people go directly to the mortuary. By discount rates, I mean the mortuary will charge for one batch burn rather than charging for individual animals. So the ferret owners divide up the ashes equally amongst each other.

(Yeah, pet mortuaries are a lot cheaper than going through the vet regardless though. Vets really are money grubbers)

I've got my old yellow lab in our kitchen freezer right now lmao, jk

Dead pets? Sometimes. Dead animals? YES.

I was kind of a dead animal hoarder "No seriously, I'll skin/tan/bury it next week!!". Had to get rid of them to move here...roadkill is illegal to pick up here...I am saddened.

Only have a guinea pig to skin right now. Kinda sad. (not counting the many feeders)

I have had a few fish in the freezer before as well-I've had to send them back for credit before so best to toss in the freezer while you find out what the seller wants to do.

And now I'm imagining a bunch of people weighing out and splitting up ashes. Weird. The shelter up here actually pays someone to bury the euthed animals on their property because it's cheaper than cremation and they can't even get a deal on it.

Really common practice for non-pet animals, and in some cases pet animals that are being used for skins later on. In the ornithology department at the university I worked at, we had / have loads of dead birds in our freezer. In fact, the freezer is dedicated just to these birds. They are purely kept there for the sake of skinning and stuffing in the near / distant future depending on the workload in the department at the time. When I find DOR snakes, if they are in good condition I'll sometimes throw them in the freezer before preserving them. Depends on the situation really. . . but I think these cases are the "norm" for dead animals in the freezer

My deep freeze has all kinds of animals.
I'm a dead animal hoarder.

One time I had a box turtle in my freezer that had passed away over the winter. The next year I bought some apple trees and thought I'd kill two birds with one stone and bury my box turtle underneath an apple tree. I thought it was a pretty good idea, unfortunatly we have a lot of deer in our area and they stripped off and ate all the bark and leaves and killed the apple tree. So then we had this dead stump of an apple tree sitting in our yard being an eyesore. One day my wife had the idea that she'd dig it up and get rid of it. She was quite surprised and a little alarmed to find a dead turtle underneath it. I thought her reaction was kind of funny but she didn't really see the humor in it and was a bit upset with me for planting dead turtles underneath our apple trees.

It's very weird

Yeah, I brought this up because I'd be a bit weirded out if I opened the freezer to see my dead pet's body staring back at me while I decide between chicken nuggets or fish for dinner. Then again, in Texas, it doesn't get too cold to have a burial.
I totally understand storing animals for skinning or science, albeit on a non-hoarder level.
Just never thought of doing it myself, and couldn't think of reasons why. Thanks for the info guys! Post away!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by pythonminion

I'd be a bit weirded out if I opened the freezer to see my dead pet's body staring back at me while I decide between chicken nuggets or fish for dinner!

---

Haha,I couldn't agree more,lol

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MarkS

Because I'm from MN and the ground is really hard to dig in the winter.

---

Ditto. Rabbits or such that die during the winter are tossed in the freezer to be taken care of once the ground thaws out. Its not uncommon for them to be forgotten about until available freezer space starts to dwindle, and then rediscovered. Most get rediscovered during deer season.

I put small (i.e. rat or bird sized) dead pets in the freezer until I get to burying them. Larger pets get cremated right away.

I can understand how it would be seen and weird. For me personally, I'm so used to it it doesn't weird me out. Besides the fact I tend to put things in bags and can't see them any way.