Inside of the pet funeral service vehicle (Mapo-gu Office)

Mapo-gu, a district in Seoul, is set to introduce a house call pet funeral service in collaboration with Petmun, a local pet services firm, district official said Tuesday.

This service centers around a specialized vehicle equipped with a smokeless, odorless cremation facility. This vehicle will visit the home of the deceased pet, conduct a funeral service there and transport the pet’s body for cremation.

Although the vehicle itself is a moving crematorium, the district plans to set a rule that the cremation must be carried out a designated location and the ashes be returned to the owner later.

“This agreement represents a significant advancement in pet funeral culture,” said Park Gang-su, head of the Mapo-gu Office, at the agreement ceremony on Tuesday. “We aim to nurture a mature pet culture through various pet welfare policies.”

The start date for the service has not yet been determined.

“The agreement has been finalized on a large scale, but there are still several administrative procedures to complete. We will work on providing the service as quickly as possible,” a district official said.

Under current regulations, deceased pets are classified as waste, leaving pet owners with two options: use a private pet funeral center or dispose of the body in the trash.

As pet funeral centers are scarce in Seoul, and the trash bag option is unappealing to many pet owners, this has led some to bury their pets in their backyards or nearby mountains, which is illegal.

A 2022 survey by the Korea Consumer Agency revealed that 41.3 percent of pet owners who buried their pets did so in their backyards or the mountains.

The service will be offered at a 60 percent discount to Mapo-gu residents. Additionally, elderly individuals aged 75 and older who live alone in Mapo-gu can use the service free of charge.

Meanwhile, according to KB Real Estate, a platform of KB Kookmin Bank, Mapo-gu has the highest number of pet-related businesses in Seoul, with 1,084 such establishments out of a total of 8,873 in the city.

Park Gang-su (right), head of the Mapo-gu Office, listens to an explanation about the smokeless and odorless portable crematorium installed in a vehicle. (Mapo-gu Office)