Planning a goodbye for your pet in Scranton
About 28,000 Scranton households share their home with a dog or cat, by our estimate. When the time comes, a small farewell helps. This page covers where to hold it, what it costs and who to call.
- Home, garden or viewing-room farewells
- Witnessed cremation and cemetery burial explained
- Plan it all within a day if you need to
Scranton, Pennsylvania
What planning a pet funeral in Scranton is like
Many Scranton goodbyes take place in the front room of a family double-block, sometimes with a prayer or a candle, sometimes simply with a favorite blanket and quiet conversation. Some owners stay beside their animal through the very end; others prefer to say their piece first and step outside. Tell the vet which suits you, whether you want time alone afterward, and whether a relative from down the valley is still on the way.
Some Scranton families visit Nay Aug Park on the anniversary, light a candle at home or bring supplies to a Lackawanna County shelter in their pet's memory. Children can help by drawing a picture or painting a rock to set by the back steps. A small, familiar ritual makes it easier to come back to the memory year after year, whatever else changes.
In Scranton, 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.
Scranton's population is around 75,514, the 7th-largest of the 36 Pennsylvania communities we cover.
Scranton sits within easy reach of Wilkes-Barre (16 miles), Hazleton (36 miles) and Binghamton (49 miles). A provider based in any of them will usually collect from Scranton; ask what the mileage adds to the bill.
Our estimate
28,000
How many dog- or cat-owning households Scranton has (estimate)
How we calculated this
75,514 ÷ 2.5 = 30,206 households; × 53% (dog) + 39% (cat) = 28,000. A household with several pets counts once.
Our estimate
2,300
Scranton families who lose a dog or cat each year (estimate)
How we calculated this
28,000 dog/cat-owning homes ÷ average lifespan (dog: 12.69 yrs + cat: 11.18 yrs) ≈ 2,300 a year. Treat it as a minimum.
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 American Pet Products Association (APPA) 2025 State of the Industry and Montoya et al. 2023, Frontiers in Veterinary Science, if you'd like to read the original sources.
How Pennsylvania thinks about funerals and cremation
About 61.3%[5] of people in Pennsylvania are cremated, so local faith communities are used to both burial and cremation. If you'd like a blessing for your pet, many clergy will say one at home or by a grave, and there's no set form. A short prayer, a reading or a moment of silence before the collection or the burial is plenty.
That Pennsylvania rate is a human one, published by NFDA 2024 Cremation & Burial Report state projections (via Occasional Sage) (2024). We quote it for Scranton only as a pointer to how families here already think about cremation.
When the weather shapes the goodbye
Some families in Scranton with an old or failing pet dig the garden grave in autumn, before the ground locks up in January, February, March 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.
It's tempting to keep your pet in an unheated garage or shed through January, February, March and December until the ground softens. For a few days that can work, in a closed box off the floor and sealed from wildlife, but over weeks the temperature swings too much. For a spring burial, cremation now and burying the ashes later is kinder and simpler.
Pet farewell prices for Scranton families
Ask every provider in Scranton to split the quote in two: body care (collection, cremation or burial, the container) and the farewell (viewing time, witnessed cremation, a graveside service). Seeing the two numbers apart makes it easy to drop what you don't need. The national figures below show what's typical.
Prices for Scranton track the wider Pennsylvania market, so use the Pennsylvania price table as your baseline and the services page to see what is included.
Free tool
Memorial budget planner
Add up cremation, urn, keepsakes and a farewell so the total holds no surprises.
Local rules worth checking in Pennsylvania
If your pet was put to sleep, the drug stays in the body, and wildlife or other animals can be poisoned if a grave is dug up. That risk is one reason home burial is regulated at all, and why a well-covered grave or cremation matters. Here's what Pennsylvania says.
Pennsylvania keeps an official directory of local governments; use it to reach the county or city office that covers Scranton.
For Pennsylvania's rules on burying a pet at home or scattering ashes, see the Pennsylvania guide. Local rules in Scranton can be stricter than the state's, especially in homeowners' associations and rentals.
A simple plan for the hours ahead
- Check gently that your pet has died: no breathing, no heartbeat against the chest, eyes open and still. If you're not sure, ring an emergency vet.
- Close the eyes if you can and curl the legs softly so your pet looks asleep; do this inside the first two hours or so, while the body is still supple.
- Slide an old towel or puppy pad underneath. After death the bowel and bladder often release on their own. This is expected and isn't a sign that something was wrong.
- Let your other animals come and sniff should they show interest. Plenty of owners believe this helps the remaining pets make sense of why the bed is now empty.
- If it's the middle of the night and the house is cool, the calls can wait for daylight. Nobody minds if you spend one last quiet night beside them.
- Before collection or burial, hold ten minutes of goodbye, so that the last thing you remember is your own farewell and not an unfamiliar face at the door.
Marking the loss, now and later
Scranton's long, snowy winters can make grief feel heavy and isolating, especially for older residents who live alone with a pet. If the loss is weighing on you, talk about it. Pet loss hotlines, online support circles and counselors familiar with animal bereavement can be reached by phone, which helps when the roads are icy and staying home is safer.
or look at how readers voted in our polls, For a plain comparison of the choices, open services, look through our guides and the blog, try the free planning tools. More local pages: Reading, Allentown, Bethlehem and Pittsburgh, the Pennsylvania overview and every city in the United States.
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.
Who would you want at your pet's farewell?
Tap an answer to vote and see how others answered. Anonymous.
When would you hold the farewell?
Tap an answer to vote and see how others answered. Anonymous.
If you had to decide today, which aftercare would you choose for your pet?
Tap an answer to vote and see how others answered. Anonymous.
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
When is the hardest time of year to arrange a burial in Scranton?
January, February, March and December: average lows are below freezing then, and frozen ground makes a home grave slow or impossible until it thaws. The other pressure point is July, when highs around 85°F mean a body needs cooling and collecting quickly.
Roughly how many pets die in Scranton each year?
Our estimate is around 2,300. It comes from Scranton's population (about 75,514), the average household size, the share of homes with a dog or cat (about 28,000 households here) and the average lifespan. It is arithmetic, not a count, so read it as a rough floor.
Is cremation common in Pennsylvania?
For people, yes: about 61.3%[5] of Pennsylvania deaths end in cremation, according to NFDA 2024 Cremation & Burial Report state projections (via Occasional Sage) (2024). Nobody publishes the same figure for pets, but in our experience pet choices in Scranton follow the human pattern closely, so cremation is the default most families here start from.
Can a provider from a neighbouring town collect from Scranton?
Usually yes. Wilkes-Barre is about 16 miles away, Hazleton is about 36 miles away and Binghamton is about 49 miles away, all inside a normal collection radius. Get the mileage written into the quote so there is no surprise on the day.
Can I combine a farewell with water cremation near Scranton?
Yes. Water cremation, or aquamation, still returns ashes, so you can hold a viewing before or a celebration of life afterwards just as you would with flame cremation. Fewer providers offer it, and it may mean a longer drive from Scranton. Ask early, and expect a slightly longer wait for the ashes.
What's a viewing, and do I need one?
A viewing is unhurried time with your pet in a private room, usually at the crematory, vet or a funeral home, before cremation or burial. You don't need one, but it helps if you weren't there at the end, if relatives are arriving from out of town, or if children need to see that their pet has really died.
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 Pennsylvania's cremation rate at 61.3% for 2024. NFDA 2024 Cremation & Burial Report state projections (via Occasional Sage), 2024.
- [6] Across 15 US pet cemeteries' posted starting burial prices, the median entry price was about $600. Our estimate: median of starting prices [400,185,300,550,575,99,660.44,730,740,850,850,800,850,600,600]. How we calculate.
Tell us about the goodbye you're planning
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.