Sternentier Pet Cremation - Our services
Sternentier Pet Cremation - Our services

Our Services

The Sternentier Pet Cremation is a small family run business. The only pet cremation office based directly in the city of Paderborn, even if Google unfortunately gives the impression through paid ads that there are other providers here in town. We are offering personal care for you from the first consultation to the delivery of the remaining ashes of your pet. In doing so, we can tailor our care individually to incorporate your wishes and needs, because when a pet dies, there are just so many things to consider. These are our services for you: (To open or close the detailed description click on the black arrows on the left.)

In the event of death, if you want to bring immediately your pet at night or on the weekend, we offer a 24-hour on-call service. You can call the emergency service on 0173 9811416. Please refrain from SMS or similar text messages. And please remember, we are a pet cremation and not a veterinary service. We are not necessarily on site outside of opening hours, but will open for you within an hour if necessary.

For general information, consultations, planned farewells, ash returns, and pickup of urns, we arrange appointments at our office:
Monday – Thursday 09:00 to 17:00 hrs
Fridays 09:00 to 14:00 hrs.

To ensure we always have enough time for you, and, for example, if you wish to say farewell to your pet, you can do that without any time pressure, and in order to avoid longer waiting times, we ask you to call us before your visit to arrange an appointment.

Please understand that our office is not permanently manned due to emergencies.

We are happy to discuss all the options of pet cremations with you in advance, such as the process, the cremation methods, where your pet is cremated, how the transfer takes place, how long you have to wait for the ashes, the choice of an urn and much more. These are some examples that you should ask all pet cremation services, as this will clarify any differences. Since our office is not manned at all times, we work by appointment only.

It seems to have become a bit fashionable that we want to protect ourselves for any eventualities. Accordingly, there are now death insurances for pet owners with monthly instalments, too. Whether this makes sense, you must decide for yourself. We do not offer such contracts and can only advise you to carefully check the small print. Are you able to contract with another pet creamtion service later, or are you tied to a company? Are there for example additional contract completion fees due?

Nevertheless the need for regular provision is absolutely understandable. Therefore, in addition to a personal chat, we offer you our cremation contract in a modified version as a pre-plan draft. You can fill out the form and maybe already choose an urn according to your ideas in our online showroom (site in German language only). It is best to keep the document with your pet’s records so that you have it at hand in case of an emergency and know everything is decided on. Of course, we can also keep a copy for you without any obligation if you wish. Our contracts are invalid until signed by both parties – you and us – after your pet has passed away. This gives you the opportunity to make changes at any time.

It is quite common in Germany for veterinarians to receive a commission for recommending a pet cremation. Everyone is allowed to and should be paid for their work, although it would be far fairer competition, this system would be forbidden as with doctors and undertakers. We offer bonus cooperations to veterinarians, too, but we’re not getting into a bidding war!

We prefer to convince through our offers and the quality of our services. A pet cremation service without their own incinerator simply cannot pay the sums that large pet cremation companies with multiple pet crematories can afford, who even extra employ sales representatives for “acquisition”. The customer is rarely recommended the local pet cremation office, but preferably the big ones miles way, who then drive to the veterinary practices throughout Germany in their “pick-up vans” and later send the ashes back by post.

If your veterinarian says, he does not work with us, you can of course still ask us to collect your pet up from the respective practice. As a pet owner you have the free choice to decide on a pet cremation service of your trust, and only you personally decide on the type of cremation. If you are not able to call us at this very emotional moment, it should be a service of your veterinary practice to call us on your behalf and let us know that we can come to collect your pet.

You can bring your pet to us at any time, 24 hours a day – 7 days a week. We only ask you to contact us shortly before your arrival to ensure that especially outside office hours our on-call staff will be there for you.

If you do not want to or are unable to bring your pet to us, we will pick up your pet from you or your veterinary practice or veterinary clinic. This service we offer Monday to Sunday from 8 am to 7 pm. From 7 pm to 8 am, on weekends and bank holidays we only collect pets from the veterinarians, not from private homes. Upon collection from your veterinarian, we are legally obliged to obtain a written confirmation from you. If your veterinarian practice does not have its own form, you can download the document here: collection request pet cremation. In case of an emergency we can fax or email it to you or the veterinary practice within a few minutes. Please understand, the language available for the contract is German. All agreements shall be in German. The English version is for information purposes only.

Of course we not only collect your pet from the veterinarians in our area, like in Bad Lippspringe, Borchen, Elsen, Marienloh, Paderborn, Salzkotten and Schloß Neuhaus, we will also collect your pet from veterinarians and pet clinics outside Paderborn, such as for example Bielefeld, Brilon, Bueren, Delbrueck, Geseke, Guetersloh, Hoexter, Lichtenau, Lippstadt, Soest, Stukenbrock and Warburg. The collection fee depends on the distance to the respective practice.

Please understand that we charge an extra collection fee for heavy pets, if no one at your home can help with loading the pet into our car.

Maybe you did not have time to say goodbye to your pet? We give you the opportunity to still do this a day after at our facility in all privacy. You can take all the time you need – be alone, be with your family and friends.

For us as owners of more than one dogs, it goes without saying that if a dog dies or is euthanized, we give our other dogs the opportunity to say goodbye, too. Every now and then it happens that you have to leave your pet at the vet for an operation, for example, and return home alone. However, when the dog or cat is picked up again it is always greeted happily by the others. If now the pet does not come back because it has died, the other pets in the household may well start looking for it. We want to avoid that with the farewell.

Everyone has their own opinion, but we have had consistently positive experiences with this. Therefore, of course, we offer all of our customers to bring their pets with them for the farewell.

We will arrange the farewell individually according to your wishes.

Important! When collecting your pet, please let us know right away whether you would like us to say goodbye again the next day so that we can store your pet accordingly. If we have already placed your pet in the required cremation bag, it is no longer possible to open the bag again due to the applicable hygiene regulations.

As a very special reminder, we offer to create a paw print of your pet. It is made with a special foam and placed in a double picture frame, with a wooden frame in black or white. On one side you have space for a photo of your pet and on the other side we place the paw print of your pet. A lovely memory to keep on your shelve.

For cats and larger dogs from approx. 20 kg, the picture frame is unfortunately not suitable due to the foam material respectively rather small cutout. It is then possible to make a 3D paw print in modelling clay (plaster). If you would like to make the print yourself, you may of course obtain the foam sheets from us. Here are our instructions for you:

How to make a paw print

You may want to have your darling’s paw tattooed later? We are happy to create a colour imprint on paper and/or a photography (digital) as a sample for your tattoo artist. We can only offer the colour imprint for dogs up to a maximum of 20 kg weight. Alternatively for cats and larger pets we offer the paw photography, which we will then send to you via email.

It is also possible to create a foil print for e.g. your pet’s urn. We then take a photo of the paw, digitally cut out the pads with a graphics software and then cut out the pad print on foil. You can choose from the colours black, gold or silver in a size of your choice, max. DIN A6.

Important! Please let us know when you contract with us for the cremation if you would like a paw print. We often get the request to please make a print a day later. We can only make prints for photos or plaster within the first few hours after death. Then rigor mortis sets in in the pets. Due to the cooling on low temperature, the rigor mortis lasts for a few days and we can no longer bend the paws into position so that a print can be made.

According to the EU regulation, we are legally obliged to place your pet in a cremation bag immediately after collecting your pet and to seal the bag securely. This means that it is no longer possible to open the bag again due to the applicable hygiene regulations.

Please understand, we are not photographers and do not have the professional equipment to take, edit and print beautiful photographs of your pet. We therefore do not offer this service. We only take photos of paws in front of a white background.

We want to ensure a respectful handling of your pet, therefore your pet gets its own place in our cold-storage cell for a very short time only. As a general rule, once a week the pets are transported to the pet crematory we trust in.

You can choose between individual cremation or communal cremation. More information on the differences can be found on our page pet cremation.

The return of the ashes to you depend on your personal wishes – at our office or your home, in a simple fabric ashes-bag, a plain wooden box (up to 1.0 l) or a decorative urn, just as you like. Buying an extra pet urn is not a must! Please understand that if you get an urn elsewhere, we will not fill it.

You can pick up the ashes from our office Monday to Thursday from 09:00 to 17:00 hrs and Fridays from 09:00 to 14:00 hrs.

Normally it only takes a max. of 2 weeks from the day of transfer and you already have the ash of your pet back in your hands. Of course, a despatch via post is also possible. Please keep in mind, however, that we cannot guarantee that your package will not be lost by the courier. Therefore we always recommend that you come to us to pick up the ashes.

We have a small selection of urns and jewellery that you can take a look at on-site. Furthermore we can order well over hundred different urns for you. You can choose from our catalogues or directly in our online show room: urns collection (site in German language only). Most urns will be available in 2-3 working days, but if you want a personal customization, such as lettering or a photo, it may take a few days longer. It will be manufactured especially for you by our suppliers.

Together with Hansa Bestattungen GmbH, we offer you the silent burial at sea for your pet’s ashes either in the North Sea or the Baltic Sea. After the cremation we send the ashes of your pet to the ocean carrier. They fill the ashes in a sea urn specially designed for water.

The weather conditions at the sea determine the time of the burial, which is carried out at regular intervals of about 4 to 6 weeks. When the ship arrives at the burial site, the ship’s bell will ring, then the urn will be gracefully released to the sea. A minute’s silence follows in memory of your pet. Then the captain drives a lap of honour around the burial position, the ship’s bell rings again for a last goodbye.

Unfortunately, you cannot accompany the burial at sea, but you will receive a nautical chart as a reminder, where the exact coordinates of the burial and the date are documented.

The city of Paderborn enables the so-called human-pet-burial on the Westfriedhof. This means that the urn with the ashes of the pet can be buried on the grave of the pet owner.

If the pet dies before the owner, there is a burial of the human and pet urn together. If the owner dies first and the pet urn is later buried in the grave, the cemetery gardeners will open the grave again, the pet urn will then be buried and the grave covered again. Corresponding additional fees are charged by the cemetery administration for this service.

As your on-site pet cremation, we will of course be happy to take care of the entire process for you if you choose this type of urn burial.

Many dogs are specially trained and take care of e.g. tasks for people in need. This great work cannot be appreciated enough, so owners of assistance dogs, guide dogs, police dogs and rescue dogs receive a 10% discount on an individual cremation and 5% on the communal cremation.

Please provide us with a training certificate before we transfer your pet to the crematory.

We offer the One Stop Tax Free system to all military personnel. To take advantage of the system you need to obtain a valid Local Purchase Orders (MwSt Forms) from your unit. Please hand this form to us directly at the time you bring you pet respectively when we collect your pet.

The cremation of farm animals is not permitted in Germany. We often get inquiries for e.g. chicken mini pigs and goats to have them cremated.

Even if we can truly understand that these animals are very important to you, too – we are chicken keepers ourselves – and you wish to bury these animals with dignity, according to the German law farm animals are no pets.

We have explicitly asked the State Agency for Nature, Environment and Consumer Protection North Rhine Westphalia (“LANUV”) whether there are any exceptions, but it is still not possible as of December 29th, 2022.

Here is the official statement of the LANUV:

If the cause of death is unclear, maybe caused by third parties, or the pet owner keeps other pets and wants to rule out a contagious infection, you can have your pet autopsied in an animal pathology department.

Due to strict regulations regarding protection against infection and epidemics, the pets will not be returned to the owner after the autopsy has been carried out.

If you would like us to cremate your pet, you can give us power of attorney and we will take care of both the transfer to the animal pathology department and the collection of your pet.

If there is a potential legal dispute, please clarify in advance with your lawyer to which animal pathology department your pet should be taken. Not every pathology carries out the entire range of examinations, especially when it comes to court reports.

The cost of the autopsy will be billed to you directly by the animal pathology department. Transfer and collection costs are based on distance. Please ask us for a quote.