How would you say goodbye? Vote, then see what others chose
Market researchers report that 56%[1] of pet owners choose some kind of memorial service. Our polls ask what that looks like in real homes, one anonymous vote at a time.
- Anonymous, one vote per question
- Live results the moment you vote
- Questions about real farewell decisions
Why we ask
Why we run polls about pet farewells
There's plenty of research on pet cremation prices and very little on the goodbye itself. Nobody publishes how many families light a candle, invite the neighbors or let a six-year-old hold the leash one last time. Yet those are exactly the questions people ask themselves at two in the morning.
So we ask our readers. Each poll is one question with a handful of answers, written the way a person would actually say them. You vote anonymously and see the live tally straight away. Browse them below, vote on as many as you like, and see the full picture on the results page.
Browse every poll
How families plan a goodbye for a pet: who comes, where it happens, what gets said and what it costs.
What kind of goodbye feels right for your pet?
Tap an answer to vote and see how others answered. Anonymous.
Who would you want at your pet's farewell?
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Should young children be part of a pet's goodbye?
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Which ritual would you most want at a pet's farewell?
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Would faith or cultural tradition shape your pet's goodbye?
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What would you spend on a farewell, beyond cremation or burial?
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When would you hold the farewell?
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Would you use an online memorial page or livestream for a pet?
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What we ask
The questions, and why each one matters
- The format: a quiet home goodbye, a gathering, a graveside service, a witnessed cremation or an online memorial. This one sets the shape of everything else.
- Who attends: only the household, or friends from the dog park too. Families are often surprised by how many people want to come.
- Children: whether young children should be part of it, and how much. Parents are divided, and there's no single right answer.
- Rituals: candles, letters, planting, a last walk, a reading, or just stories.
- Faith and culture: whether tradition shapes the goodbye, from a blessing to a full religious rite.
- Budget and timing: what people would spend beyond cremation or burial, and when they'd hold the farewell.
Which ritual would you most want at a pet's farewell?
Tap an answer to vote and see how others answered. Anonymous.
Reading between the lines
What these questions reveal, even before the votes
The children question tends to split households, and published research reflects the same uncertainty: in the RSPCA's large pet-loss survey, 93.4%[2] of parents said they wanted better guidance on helping children through it. If you're unsure, our article on including children in a pet farewell offers gentle options.
The faith question matters more than people expect. In Japan, where pet funeral halls and temple memorials are common, about 30%[3] of owners in one survey felt a funeral would help them avoid regret. Elsewhere, many families build their own small rituals instead. Neither approach is more correct.
The online memorial question reflects a real shift. One market forecast expects digital memorials to be the fastest-growing part of the pet funeral market, at about 13.83%[4] a year. Our poll asks whether readers would actually use one, which is a different question.
Would you use an online memorial page or livestream for a pet?
Tap an answer to vote and see how others answered. Anonymous.
A word of caution
How to read the results sensibly
Our polls show what readers of this site chose. They aren't a scientific survey. People who read a pet funeral guide are more likely to be planning a ceremony than the average owner, so the results lean that way. Numbers also move as more people vote.
Use them as a sense of company, not a rule. If most readers would light a candle and you'd rather take one last walk, the walk is the right choice for you. For published research on what owners actually do, see our research page, or the peer-reviewed UK study of pet bereavement in PLOS ONE, which found 32.6%[5] of adults had lived through the death of a beloved pet.
There's no average family, and no average goodbye. The polls just remind you that you're not the only one deciding.
The bigger trend
Why farewells are moving out of funeral homes and into living rooms
Several of our questions exist because farewells are changing. People increasingly mark death in informal, personal ways. In the US, 25.9%[6] of consumers said they'd attended an end-of-life event outside a funeral home in 2024, such as a Death Café, roughly double the year before. Pet farewells follow the same pattern: most happen at home, in a garden or on a video call.
Personal touches matter too. Market researchers report that about half of pet owners are interested in personalized memorials. By our estimate, that works out to around 765,000[7] US families a year who might want a keepsake of some kind. That's why our rituals and format polls offer everyday answers like "one last walk" or "just sharing funny stories" alongside the more formal options.
We use what readers tell us to decide which guides to write next. If many readers would hold a farewell only when the ashes return, we'll write more about that timing. If the faith question shows lots of uncertainty, we'll cover blessings and readings in more depth. Our pet funeral planning guide is where most of that work ends up.
From voting to planning
Turning your answers into a real plan
If voting helped you notice what you want, write it down while it's clear. The farewell planner takes the same choices, who, where, which rituals, and turns them into a printable checklist. The memorial budget planner does the same for costs.
Want to know what's available near you? Our services page explains each option, and a short note through the form above gets local options by email.
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?
Tap an answer to vote and see how others answered. Anonymous.
What kind of goodbye feels right for your pet?
Tap an answer to vote and see how others answered. Anonymous.
What helped you most in the first weeks?
Tap an answer to vote and see how others answered. Anonymous.
Questions people ask
Are the polls anonymous?
Yes. We don't ask for your name or email to vote, and results are shown only as totals. One vote per question is counted from each browser, so the tallies aren't skewed by repeat clicks.
Can I change my vote?
Not once it's counted, because we keep voting simple and anonymous. If your view changes, that's normal. Planning a farewell often shifts as the day gets closer, and the polls are a snapshot rather than a commitment.
Should I look at the results before I vote?
It's better not to. Seeing results first tends to nudge people toward the most popular answer. Answer for your own pet and family first, then compare. The full live results are on the results page whenever you want them.
Can I suggest a poll question?
Yes. Send it through our contact page. We look for questions that help people make a real decision about a pet farewell, such as rituals, timing, who attends or cost, and that other readers would find useful to see answered.
Do you use the poll results for anything?
Only to decide what to write about. If readers are split or uncertain on a question, such as whether children should attend, we treat that as a sign that a clear, practical guide would help. We never present poll totals as research findings.
Sources and our estimates
- [1] Market.us reports that about 56% of pet owners choose memorial services for their pets. Market.us — Pet Funeral Services Market report page, 2024.
- [2] 93.4% of parents in the RSPCA survey wanted better guidance on helping children through pet loss. RSPCA — Pet Loss Survey Results, 2026.
- [3] A 2023 Suncelmo survey of 391 Japanese pet owners found about 30% believed holding a funeral would help them avoid regret. The Japan News via Asia News Network - As pets become more like family, more owners in Japan are opting for elaborate funerals (Apr 2025), 2023.
- [4] Digital memorials are the fastest-growing pet funeral service segment in Mordor Intelligence's forecast, at a 13.83% CAGR for 2025–2030. Mordor Intelligence — Pet Funeral Services Market report page, 2025.
- [5] In a survey of 975 UK adults, 32.6% had experienced the death of a beloved pet. Hyland et al., 'No pets allowed: Evidence that prolonged grief disorder can occur following the death of a pet', PLOS ONE (2026), 2026.
- [6] 25.9% of U.S. consumers had attended a non-funeral-home end-of-life event (e.g., Death Café) in 2024, up from 13.2% in 2023. Memorial Business Journal / NFDA — Inside the 2024 NFDA Consumer Awareness and Preferences Survey, Part 4 (July 4, 2024), 2024.
- [7] Around 765,000 U.S. families a year are likely open to a personalized pet keepsake. Our estimate: 1.5M pet cremations x 51% interest in personalized memorials. How we calculate.
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