For journalists & newsrooms
Press & data
Hallowed Paws is an independent consumer-advocacy resource for pet owners — no industry funding, no paid listings. We publish original research on how pet cremation is priced and regulated in the United States. If you're covering a pet-cremation story, our data, findings, and the people behind them are yours to use. Everything below is sourced and free to cite.
Fast facts you can cite
have any pet-cremation consumer law. There is no federal rule — the FTC Funeral Rule covers human remains only, not pets.
Source: The case for oversight →of providers published no price online, in our study of 118 providers across 12 metros. The median private cremation was $300.
Source: 2026 Cost Report →allow pet aquamation (water cremation) — even the states where aquamation for people is not yet legal, because pet aftercare sits outside human funeral law.
Source: Pet aquamation →Maryland became the latest state to enact a pet-cremation consumer-protection law — registration, animal ID, and five years of records, enforced by the Attorney General.
Source: 50-state law map →have seen documented pet-cremation criminal cases since 2023 (PA, MD, NV, CA, GA), including a 2026 conviction — each tied to its official source.
Source: Documented cases →Every figure traces to a primary or government source on the linked page. Need the underlying dataset (state law or provider pricing)? Just ask.
Our original research & resources
- The 50-State Pet After-Death Law Map →
An interactive map of backyard-burial, cremation-oversight, and aquamation law in all 50 states — every cell cited to a primary statute or state agency.
- The 2026 Pet Cremation Cost Report →
Original research: published prices collected directly from 118 providers across 12 metros, with the share that publish no price at all.
- Documented Pet Cremation Cases →
A sourced record of cases where an Attorney General, DA, or police filed criminal charges or won a conviction. Charges are noted as allegations; the record is corrected as cases resolve.
- The Case for Pet Cremation Oversight →
Our position, with the human-vs-pet regulatory contrast and the 2025–26 legislative landscape (Maryland enacted; Pennsylvania and California moving).
- The Crematory Trust Checklist →
The consumer-protection questions a family can use to verify a provider — the standard a handful of states now require by law.
Quote us
You're welcome to use this on-the-record statement, attributed to Hallowed Paws:
"Pet cremation is one of the least-regulated things a grieving family will ever pay for. In most states, no agency checks that you get your own pet back — so the safeguards have to come from the family. It's a gap lawmakers are only now starting to close." — Hallowed Paws
We can also provide tailored data, additional context, or comment on deadline — including state-specific figures. Reach us at editor@hallowedpaws.com.
Using our work
Our findings are free to quote and cite with attribution to Hallowed Paws and a link to hallowedpaws.com. Our underlying datasets — the state-by-state law data and the provider-pricing study — are published under a Creative Commons BY 4.0 license, so you're free to reuse them with credit. If you'd like a chart, the raw dataset, or a methodology walkthrough, we'll send it over.
Story angles we can help with
- The regulation gap: pets get no FTC Funeral Rule, and only 9 states fill the void.
- Price opacity: nearly half of providers won't publish a price — and what that costs grieving families.
- Why the cases recur: the same missing safeguard — chain of custody — in case after case.
- The aquamation surprise: water cremation is legal for pets in all 50 states.
- What good looks like: the Arizona / New York / Maryland model, and the bills moving now.
Contact
Covering a pet-cremation story, on deadline or planning ahead? We respond quickly.