Why we exist
Pet Legacy Guide started from a simple observation: losing a pet is one of the most quietly devastating experiences many of us go through, yet it's often the hardest kind of grief to find real support for. We wanted one gentle, uncluttered place to help with the practical parts, such as finding a service and understanding the process, and with the parts that are harder to put into words.
What you'll find here
The site has three parts:
- A directory of pet end-of-life services: cemeteries, cremation providers, mobile euthanasia veterinarians, preservation specialists, and living memorials.
- A set of honest, practical guides for the decisions and the grief that come with this stage of a pet's life, available in eight languages.
- The Wall of Remembrance, where anyone can create a free, permanent memorial page for a companion who has passed away.
How we work
We keep things simple on purpose. There are no accounts to manage, no comment sections to moderate arguments in, and no ads competing for your attention. Memorials are free, and always will be. The directory is not for sale either: no business can pay for a listing, a ranking, or a review.
Pet Legacy Guide is a small, independently run project that runs on a deliberately modest budget, which is why it is built as a fast, quiet, mostly static website.
How memorials are reviewed
Every photo a visitor submits is automatically screened for inappropriate content and scanned for malware, and then a real person reads the submission before it is published. Nothing a visitor submits goes live automatically. We may decline a submission that doesn't fit our guidelines.
In the interest of transparency: our editors occasionally add example memorials for fictional pets, with AI-assisted text and images, so that the Wall of Remembrance never feels empty and new visitors can see what a memorial looks like. They are not labelled individually, and they are never presented as submissions from visitors.
Where AI helps, and where it doesn't
We use AI in a few clearly bounded ways:
- Screening submitted photos for content that breaks our rules (alongside human review).
- Drafting and translating directory descriptions from public information.
- Preparing our guides and translating them into eight languages.
- Creating the example memorials described above.
How the directory and guides are made
Directory listings are compiled from public sources such as OpenStreetMap and business websites. We try to keep them accurate, but we don't verify every listing's licensing, prices or quality, and a listing is never an endorsement. Please confirm details directly with a provider.
Our guides are prepared with AI assistance and written to be warm, practical and general. They are not written or reviewed by veterinarians, and they are not veterinary advice. Translations may read imperfectly; the English version is the reference. The photographs in the guides come from Wikimedia Commons under open licences and are credited beneath each picture.
A note on care
If your pet needs urgent medical care, contact your local veterinarian or emergency animal hospital right away. If your grief feels like too much, please reach out to someone you trust, a pet-loss support line, or a counsellor. Our coping guide has suggestions.
Get in touch
If something is missing, wrong, or could be gentler, we want to know. Write to us to correct a listing, to ask for a memorial to be changed or removed, to report a problem, or if you hit an accessibility barrier. See the Contact page.