By: Shannen Leong and Kee Yong Yi
29 years old. The prime age for millennials to get married, have children, and settle down.
However, life had other plans for Ilex. Initially, a worker in a Migrant Workers Dormitory, Ilex had never considered, yet alone, heard of pet cremation.
As the saying goes, “you can’t choose your destiny, it chooses you.”
A posed portrait: A 29-year-old pet cremator at Rainbow Paradise Pet Cremation, Mr Ilex Tan. Joined in 2020, Ilex has over a year of experience now. (PHOTO: Kee Yong Yi)
An Unexpected Start
“I will come to take a look before I try first,” were the first few thoughts that Ilex had, particularly skeptical about this new opportunity.
His friend’s father gave him a shot at Rainbow Paradise Pet Cremation, the same time when COVID-19 became full-blown in the Dormitories. The dangers of catching COVID-19 lurked around his mind, leaving Ilex doubtful if this was an industry that he wanted to stay in.
Little did he know what joy he would find in this profession.
Heart Of Gold
Deceased pet owners often come in notably depressed and sad after the demise of their pet. Despite that, Ilex notices a warm smile on their faces after they see their pet cremated thoughtfully with the cremation process being clean, straightforward, and transparent.
By sending these animals off with such grandeur, it helps the pet owners recuperate after the loss of their pet.
“After everything, when they collect back their pet, they come and thank you, and say ‘really thank you for helping us go through this very sad phase of their life.’ After that, you will feel very happy. Very meaningful. Very nice to help people in this way.”
Ilex has a heart of gold, not just for animals, but for people as well, discovering his unusual motivation of continuing this line of work.
The boss of Rainbow Paradise Pet Cremation (who declined to give his name) affirms Ilex: “I applaud Ilex, for a person of his age, to be able to devote so much time and energy and make a real effort in something like this, is really very rare in the current generation.”
Unforgettable Incident
Ilex narrates an incident that he calls “unforgettable”, where a family of 8 with 3 generations came down to see their pet get cremated. It was one of the biggest groups he’s ever seen. What was most remarkable was that, from the oldest to the youngest, everyone was weeping, seeing their pet cremated.
Flowers for the dead: These flowers are used in a similar fashion to that of a human funeral to show respect for the deceased pets. They can be cremated along with the pet. (PHOTO: Kee Yong Yi)
“The whole family came. I think it was a rabbit. Then the whole family came. Everyone was crying. I was thinking that wow, this pet really is like a son/daughter to them,” Ilex states with a solemn glance, reminiscing the moment that he met that family who were mourning over the loss of their pet rabbit. For a pet cremator, it was rather unusual for a pet rabbit to be mourned over to such an extent. “You can really feel the sadness in the room. Wow.”
Initial Challenges
Dealing with death was always a taboo especially to the older generations. Superstitions about being haunted at night often came to play with anything related to death. Even if it were just pets. Ilex’s family and friends were not spared by the natural fear when it came to superstition and death, leading them to be skeptical about him joining this industry.
This is especially so as it can get rather gory. At times, the animal’s face would be disfigured with its innards would be spilling out. For someone that is afraid of gore, it isn’t easy to look at such a sight, let alone cremate the animal. However, Ilex felt the obligation to continue doing his job despite his fears, due to his passion in ensuring that the animals go in peace.
“I mean no choice, if I don’t do then no one will do. So, we will still do it. Sometimes the face is a bit out of shape, we need to try to push a little bit, put it nicely, put flowers, clean up the face a little bit,” he remarks with a glimpse of passion in his eyes.
Quote: Found at the entrance of Rainbow Paradise Pet Cremation. A bench is available for owners that arrived before opening hours. (PHOTO: Kee Yong Yi)
Feeling empathy for pet owners and getting emotional alongside them is a challenge that Ilex faced. “We need to control our tears. We need to be professional so we cannot push in then suddenly we cry. So, holding our tears is also a bit hard. But we still need to do it. That feeling you can feel, wah very sad,” the 29-year-old emphasized, as he recounts the challenges faced.
“We try to understand them, be very gentle with them, and be very patient with them.”
The Process Of Cremation
Working in a pet crematory business can often become repetitive. When asked, Ilex recalls his days often being the same. Working in the morning shift, Ilex would come in around 8am, start off by cleaning up the centre and preparing the necessary paperwork.
In the center's lobby, this corner functions as a reception desk and is where Ilex's spend most of his time doing paperwork when there is no cremation scheduled. (PHOTO: Kee Yong Yi)
After which, he will see if there is pet cremation scheduled for the first slot. If there is, he will take out the body earlier, clean up, do some slight grooming and prepare the flowers. Ilex ensures that families would not have to wait so that they can spend all the time available with their pet.
The final moments: A motorized cremation table where offerings can be placed. Before the cremation, family members will get to spend the last moments they have together and they can lay out all the offerings they have for their pet. (PHOTO: Kee Yong Yi)
Located within the same area as Ilex’s working space, this is one of the two resting rooms available for families when their pet is being cremated. (PHOTO: Kee Yong Yi)
Recalling his past year of experience, Ilex would occasionally find owners who want KFC chicken to be cremated with the pet. He would then tell the owners to remove the bones from the chicken. If not, they will possibly pick out chicken bones instead of their pets’ bones.
The black clippers are used to pick out the pet’s bones to be placed with the ash in the urn. (PHOTO: Kee Yong Yi)
During the cremation, owners of the deceased pet can wait in one of the two resting rooms before IIex brings out the bones ash of the pet. Subsequently, the owners will have some time to pick out a portion of their pet’s bones for keepsake.
Complimentary urns are available. Owners can also choose to purchase other urns
and/or keepsake jewelry. The urns in the photo above are not complementary. (PHOTO: Kee Yong Yi)
For new entries, Ilex will liaise with the pet owner and arrange for the center's guide to pick the deceased pet. Upon reaching the centre, Ilex and the guide will put the pet into the freezer box in the ‘cold room’. The name of the pet along with its details will then be carefully labelled in the respective box they are in.
This is the ‘cold room’ where all the freezer boxes are. They are all human-sized for versatile usage. Flowers used for the pets will also be prepared here. (PHOTO: Kee Yong Yi)
Occasionally, around every two weeks, Ilex and his colleagues will also go for sea scattering. This is an option for owners who are superstitious and don’t want to collect the ashes back.
Additionally, in accordance with the National Environmental Agency (NEA) dumping of large animal carcasses into waste-to-energy (WTE) plants is also not allowed. Owners of large pets such as dogs and cats should engage the services of commercial animal crematoria instead.
A Lesson about Passion
Passion and empathy is extremely important in this field of work. Quoting the boss, he differentiates empathy and compassion to be two very separate things: “Compassion is dangerous, because it might become an obsession. They start saying that they want to rescue every dog in the room. But we are mortals, we are normal human beings. To some extent, we have to limit it. There’s no point for you to have so much compassion but you can’t even put bread on the table. Hence, making compassion short-lived. Whereas empathy is slightly different. Empathy means you feel what the other person is feeling, but having sound reasoning to not go all out.”
A mere mortal cannot possibly save everyone. It is important for an employee to have passion, empathy, as well as sound reasoning. These values balance each other out, and ensure that one can enjoy what he/she is doing, as well as, put food on the table.
It is important that one has passion in this field of work, but has to be grounded in remembering that they cannot save every pet.
The feature wall that commemorates the deceased pets of every month. On average, Rainbow Paradise Pet Cremation cremates 150 pets per month. (PHOTO: Kee Yong Yi)
“Be open-minded!”
Ilex also expressed a desire for others to be open-minded, and try new things, for one will not know where it could lead. There is beauty in the unknown and uncertainty of things for one might never know what lessons it might teach them - be it good, or bad.
As an encouragement to the younger generation, the boss envisioned the younger generation to take over: “Slowly, I would hope that the new generation would be able to come up, have the right values and continue on this journey which I started alone, but today I have an amazing team with me. I mean it’s a long dream, and it’s not something I saw in my lifetime, but I think I may have planted a little seed, but now it’s a small little plant. But one day, it can become a tree.”
The entrance of Rainbow Paradise Pet Cremation. Rainbow Paradise Pet Cremation opens from Monday to Sunday, 9am-9pm. (PHOTO: Kee Yong Yi)
When life gives one a chance, take it, and run with it. Being open-minded and trying new things might land one in places that one never expects to enjoy.
Comments