‘They are put in a warm bath’: Water pet cremation explained

Queensland pet owners are turning to water cremations when saying their final goodbyes to their beloved fur babies. This is how it works.

Sharon Stuckey

Water pet cremation business owner, 51, Highvale

After 30 years in banking, 20 as a manager, I had a very big career change early last year to start up my own water pet cremation business.

It was a bit left field and it was a big decision to make. I also didn’t realise how much work goes into owning a small business and it’s probably the biggest challenge I’ve had in my life.

The idea for the business started from my own experience.

My husband Martin (52) and I have a little moodle (maltese cross poodle) dog called Morgo.

I had a dog growing up but, as an adult, I’d never felt the kind of unconditional love you get from an animal and we just fell in love with him. And so we got another moodle, a girl named Tilly.

In 2018, when she was only four or five months old, I came home after travelling for work and both her and Morgo came bounding across the grass, so excited to see my car.

I started going up the driveway and then Morgo started barking and all of a sudden there was a thump and I had run over my little Tilly.

She just died in my arms. I’d never felt that loss before and we were devastated.

Then I had a dilemma – I didn’t want to bury her because if we ever left the house we’d have to leave her behind, and I didn’t want to put her in a fire. They were the only options we had at that time.

We ended up burying her but I thought there must be a better way.

Sharon Stuckey, of Highvale, was a bank manager for 30 years before starting her own pet water cremation business.

For more than a year, I did a lot of research and found water cremation – also known as alkaline hydrolysis or aquamation – was very popular in America, Canada and South Africa. It’s environmentally friendly, pollution free and a lot more gentle on the pet.

Instead of putting them in a fire, they are put in a warm bath of 95 per cent water and 5 per cent alkali which is what you find in the soil – it just accelerates the natural processes – and you are left with your pet’s full set of bones and their microchip.

The bones are collected, dried and processed to a powder form, placed in an urn and returned to the owner so you still get back what you would know as ashes but it is not done with fire.

This is also available in NSW and overseas for humans and I think it will only increase in popularity in the future.

It was a big leap of faith to give up my bank job. My business (Paws to Heaven) was the first in Queensland and third in Australia to offer the service and every month the business exceeds the month before. We have now done just over 500 pets – dogs, cats, turtles, rats, guinea pigs, birds and fish.

Martin and I got married in May. It’s the second marriage for both of us and we have a combined tribe of five kids – my sons Andrew, 26, and Jayden, 25, and Martin’s kids Taylah, 21, Lauren, 19, and Connor, 16.

Now we have four moodles – Morgo and three girls named Koda, Zola and Nala.

Sharon Stuckey (right) with her husband Martin, who run a water pet cremation business, with their moodle dogs Zola, Koda, Morgo and Nala.

I was born in Charleville and moved to Toowoomba with my family (parents Jan, 77, and John, 76, and siblings Jenny, 54, David, 50, Vance, 48, Anthony, 45) when I was seven.

I went to Harristown State High School, then worked for the Commonwealth Bank (for more than 20 years) and Bendigo Bank. I moved to Brisbane in 2014 so all my banking career was in Toowoomba and Brisbane. I was an agricultural relationship manager – I was always out on the road, travelling from Grafton to Bundaberg, out on farms, helping people buy properties, cattle and tractors.

I’ve known Martin for more than 20 years through banking. He still works full time as a bank manager for the Bank of Queensland but he also helps me with the business at nights and on weekends.

The business involves a lot of driving too and it’s 24/7 on call. I can get phone calls at 11pm or 3am and I’ll get up and drive to pick up the pet – anywhere from Caboolture to Ipswich and Ormeau.

It is sad but I see it as a privilege to help people at one of the most devastating times in their lives.

You have to have compassion and empathy, be able to talk to different people and read the room. I work harder now than I’ve ever worked in my life but I really love what I do.