A proper farewell for your pet in Edina
Around 1,650 Edina families lose a dog or cat each year, by our estimate. Some hold a garden farewell, some book a viewing room, some choose a cemetery plot. Here's what each involves locally.
- Real costs, not guesswork
- Ideas for including children gently
- Options that serve Edina by email
Edina, Minnesota
What planning a pet funeral in Edina is like
The University of Minnesota's College of Veterinary Medicine is a short drive from Edina, and pet loss resources connected to it are open to local families. Your vet can point you to counselors, support groups or hotlines. Talking with a person who has heard many stories like yours can make the first weeks feel less isolating and far less strange.
Children in Edina often grow up with a family animal, and for many kids that loss is their very first brush with death. Plain, truthful language works best: say that the body stopped working and cannot start again. Answer questions as they arise, even the same ones repeated, and give kids a job, perhaps writing a note that goes with the ashes or choosing a photo for the frame.
In Edina, the church hall, the community centre or a friendly café may be the natural place to gather after a pet's farewell, especially if half the town knew your dog from walks down the main street. A tea urn, a table of photos and an hour on a weekday afternoon is often all it takes.
With roughly 54,356 residents, Edina is the 18th-largest of the 67 Minnesota communities we cover. The nearest larger centre is Minneapolis, about 7 miles (12 km) away, which is where some providers serving Edina are based.
Our pages for Richfield (3 miles), Hopkins (4 miles) and St. Louis Park (4 miles) describe the same choices from those towns' point of view, and the providers overlap, so a quote from one often covers Edina as well.
Our estimate
20,000
How many dog- or cat-owning households Edina has (estimate)
How we calculated this
54,356 ÷ 2.5 = 21,742 households; × 53% (dog) + 39% (cat) = 20,000. Multi-pet homes count once.
Our estimate
1,650
dog and cat deaths per year in Edina, our estimate
How we calculated this
20,000 dog/cat-owning homes ÷ average lifespan (dog: 12.69 yrs + cat: 11.18 yrs) ≈ 1,650 a year. The real figure is unlikely to be lower.
53%[1]
53% of US households own a dog, which is about 71 million households.
12.69 years[2]
US dogs have an average life expectancy at birth of 12.69 years.
39%[3]
39% of US households own a cat, which is about 53 million households.
11.18 years[4]
US cats seen at Banfield hospitals have an average life expectancy at birth of 11.18 years.
The numbers above come from Montoya et al. 2023, Frontiers in Veterinary Science and American Pet Products Association (APPA) 2025 State of the Industry, if you'd like to read the original sources.
How Minnesota thinks about funerals and cremation
Even with cremation at around 68.5%[5] in Minnesota, grandparents may have grown up burying the family dog under a tree, while their grandchildren expect an urn on the shelf. Asking an older relative to lead one part of the farewell, perhaps choosing the spot or saying the first words, brings their experience into a goodbye the younger generation has planned.
The Minnesota percentage above is from NFDA 2024 Cremation & Burial Report state projections (via Occasional Sage) (2024) and refers to human funerals. Treat it as context for Edina, not as a count of pets.
Planning an outdoor goodbye in Edina's climate
Some families in Edina with an old or failing pet dig the garden grave in autumn, before the ground locks up in January, February, March, November and December, and cover it with boards and a tarp. It can feel bleak to do, but it means a winter goodbye can end in the garden, as planned, instead of waiting months for the thaw.
Home vet visits still happen through Edina winters, but icy steps and early darkness slow everyone down. Clear and grit the path, leave the porch light on and book a daytime slot in January if you can. Warm the room well beforehand too; an old pet who is shivering is harder to settle.
The real cost of a pet goodbye in Edina
The ceremony itself is rarely the expensive part of a pet funeral in Edina. The cost sits in the body care underneath it: private dog cremation averages about $260[6] in the US, and pet cemetery burial about $831[7]. A viewing may be included or charged by the half hour, and a home farewell can cost almost nothing.
The full price table by product is on our Minnesota page, and the services page explains what each option includes.
Free tool
Memorial budget planner
Add up cremation, urn, keepsakes and a farewell so the total holds no surprises.
Permissions to check in Minnesota before the ceremony
Before you plan a graveside ceremony in the garden or a scattering on a favorite walk, check the local rules. They're mostly about protecting water and other people's land, so they focus on depth, distance from wells and streams, and permission from whoever owns the land. Here's the picture for Minnesota.
The official Minnesota local government directory lists every county and city office, which is the quickest way to find who to ask in Edina.
The rules that apply across Minnesota (home burial, scattering and who oversees pet cremation) are summarized on our Minnesota page. Edina may add its own conditions, so check with the city or county before digging.
From first call to farewell: the steps
- Tell your child soon, somewhere quiet, in plain words: use the pet's name and the word died, and avoid softer phrases like 'went away' or 'went to sleep'.
- Let them choose whether to see their pet before the collection or burial; for some children, seeing settles questions they can't put into words.
- Offer choices rather than jobs: which blanket, how to decorate the box, or whether to draw a card that goes with their pet.
- Keep the ceremony to about ten minutes and let them say something, or nothing, without anyone correcting them.
- Expect questions later, often at bedtime, then give short, truthful answers when they come.
- Let their teacher or childminder know, which means a withdrawn or tearful child makes sense to the grown-ups at school.
Marking the loss, now and later
For empty nesters, a pet may have been the last daily routine left from the busy family years, and losing it can feel like a second change on top of the first. Give yourself time. Keep in touch with friends, fill a few evenings with plans, and think about volunteering at a shelter or fostering once the idea stops feeling disloyal.
or see what other families chose in the poll results, try the free planning tools, See what each option includes on our services page, browse in-depth guides or recent articles. Close to Edina we also cover Duluth, Bloomington, Saint Paul and Rochester; the full list for Minnesota and for the United States is a click away.
Reader polls
What would you choose?
Vote anonymously and see how other readers answered. The results are live counts from people who visit this site, so they show real opinions, not a scientific sample.
Should young children be part of a pet's goodbye?
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Who would you want at your pet's farewell?
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If you had to decide today, which aftercare would you choose for your pet?
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Free tools to help you plan
Memorial budget planner
Add up cremation, urn, keepsakes and a farewell so the total holds no surprises.
Farewell & memorial service planner
Build a simple goodbye: who, where, readings, rituals and a checklist.
Aftercare options compared
Compare private, communal and water cremation with burial on cost, timing and what comes home.
Questions people ask
Will I have to travel to Minneapolis to arrange things?
Not usually. Providers based in Minneapolis (roughly 7 miles from Edina) collect from here as a matter of routine, and the paperwork is done by email or phone. If you want to be present for a witnessed cremation, that is when the drive matters.
How does Edina's weather affect pet aftercare?
July is the hottest month in Edina, with average highs around 83°F, so prompt collection matters most then. Average lows drop below freezing in January, February, March, November and December, which can make digging a grave hard until spring.
Why does the Edina page quote a human cremation rate?
Because it is the best local signal we have. NFDA 2024 Cremation & Burial Report state projections (via Occasional Sage) (2024) reports about 68.5%[5] of Minnesota residents are cremated. There is no official pet equivalent, and inventing one would be worse than quoting a real, clearly labelled number.
Roughly how many pets die in Edina each year?
Our estimate is around 1,650. It comes from Edina's population (about 54,356), the average household size, the share of homes with a dog or cat (about 20,000 households here) and the average lifespan. It is arithmetic, not a count, so read it as a rough floor.
Can I scatter my pet's ashes in a park in Edina?
Sometimes, with permission. Parks, beaches and nature reserves have their own rules, and many ask you to contact the park authority first. Private land needs the owner's permission. Choose a quiet time and spot away from paths and water intakes, scatter low and downwind, and consider keeping a little back in a keepsake.
Will I need to book a pet farewell in advance in Edina?
Going by our estimate of 20,000 dog- or cat-owning households in Edina, roughly 1,650 of their pets die each year, so local vets and crematories handle goodbyes every week. Collection and standard cremation rarely need long notice. In-home vet visits, viewing rooms and witnessed cremations are limited, though, so book those as soon as you know the date, particularly for weekends.
Sources and our estimates
- [1] 53% of US households own a dog, which is about 71 million households. American Pet Products Association (APPA) 2025 State of the Industry, 2025.
- [2] US dogs have an average life expectancy at birth of 12.69 years. Montoya et al. 2023, Frontiers in Veterinary Science - Banfield Pet Hospital life expectancy tables (13.3 million dogs, 2.4 million cats, 2013-2019), 2023.
- [3] 39% of US households own a cat, which is about 53 million households. American Pet Products Association (APPA) 2025 State of the Industry, 2025.
- [4] US cats seen at Banfield hospitals have an average life expectancy at birth of 11.18 years. Montoya et al. 2023, Frontiers in Veterinary Science - Banfield Pet Hospital life expectancy tables (13.3 million dogs, 2.4 million cats, 2013-2019), 2023.
- [5] The NFDA projected Minnesota's cremation rate at 68.5% for 2024. NFDA 2024 Cremation & Burial Report state projections (via Occasional Sage), 2024.
- [6] CareCredit's 2025 cost study put the US national average for private dog cremation at $260 (range $206-$473). CareCredit (Synchrony) - How Much Does It Cost To Euthanize a Dog? (2025 ASQ360 procedural cost study), 2025.
- [7] CareCredit's 2025 cost study put the US national average for pet cemetery burial of a dog at $831 (range $659-$1,513). CareCredit (Synchrony) - How Much Does It Cost To Euthanize a Dog? (2025 ASQ360 procedural cost study), 2025.
- [8] Posted surcharges to witness or view a pet cremation range from $25 to $350, with a median of about $125 across four data points. Our estimate: median of [$25 guide low, $100 guide high, $150 NC provider, $350 VA provider]. How we calculate.
Plan your pet's farewell with us
Tell us what you need and where you are. We'll reply by email with clear options and prices so you can decide in your own time.