Lost Ashes, CVS Group
Watchdog heard from some CVS Group customers, who, after making the difficult decision to have their dogs cremated and returned to them for memorial, were informed by the their vets and the crematorium concerned that the vets ashes had gone missing.
Peter’s family dog Jack died at the end of May 2023 at the age of 13. Peter decided that he would like to have Jack cremated and the ashes returned to him. His vets, ‘Rogers, Brook & Barker’ in Longton, recommended Whitley Brook Crematorium. Bothare owned by CVS Group. He was told that Jack would be picked up and his ashes would be returned to the vet. But 2 weeks went by and Peter heard nothing.
Peter spoke over the phone with both the vet and crematorium to request the ashes be returned. They stated that the ashes had been misplaced and they would find them.
Another week passed by until Peter received a call from the vets and the crematorium, both saying they had launched a full investigation into the incident, and they would report back.
Two further months have now passed and Peter says CVS have not sent him/told him the results of their investigation.
Matt & Becky also entrusted their family dog, Holly, to be cremated by Whitley Brook crematorium in May, after being recommended by their vets’ County Vets in Sandbach. Which is also part of the CVS Group.
But after calling the vet for an update two weeks later, they received disturbing news that their dog’s ashes had also been lost. CVS Group has since corresponded with Matt & Becky, stating they believed the loss occurred during delivery back to the vets.
A CVS Group spokesperson told Watchdog:
"In June, there was a single incident in which a delivery of two dogs’ ashes to a practice in Cheshire was lost. We are so sorry that we’ve not been able to return the remains of these two pets to our clients. We do take the integrity of this process very seriously and we have examined carefully how this extremely rare mistake happened. Our conclusion from investigating our records, was that both animals were cremated in a timely manner at Whitley Brook crematorium and returned to our practice in Cheshire where, through a human error, they were lost. We have a complete set of records of this happening in line with our Pet Cremation with Confidence standard. Amongst around 200,000 pets we have cremated this year, we believe this to be the only incident where ashes have been lost in transit back to the owner. However, one loss is one too many and we have instigated even more stringent procedures which include capturing photographic evidence of each delivery back to a practice, alongside the paper verification that happened in this case.
“We have been in very regular contact with our two clients, sometimes with daily phone updates, while we investigated what happened. We have apologised to both our clients and explained in full the outcome of our enquiries. We have also offered them a fitting memorial to their beloved pet as well as obviously providing a full refund.”
