LARIMER COUNTY, Colo. — Two northern Colorado veterinarians are suing a pet crematorium, claiming that it billed them for cremation services that were not provided and buried animals in mass graves when "general cremations" were requested.
Precious Memories Pet Cemetery & Crematory, Inc. had contracted with Edwards Veterinary Care for cremation services since July 2013. Western Skies began its contact with Precious Memories in October 2019.
Both no longer work with the crematory and are suing it and roughly 50 still-unidentified parties who might have done work for the business.
In a statement, Samantha Staggs, the director of operations for Precious Memories said they were "shocked" to learn of the allegations and maintained that they're in "full compliance with all laws and regulations related to our business."
The lawsuit, filed Friday in Larimer County District Court, alleges that the Fort Collins-based Precious Memories advertised pet burial and cremation services on its website and claimed that all of their cremations were private and that remains were returned to the clinic or owner unless other arrangements were made.
According to the suit, the Standards of Practice for Cremation of Pets defines a “private cremation” as one where just one pet is placed in a cremation by itself. The lawsuit alleges Precious Moments actually provided "separate" cremations. That is when more than one pet is placed in the cremation chamber and cremated at the same time with some sort of separation between them.
It also accuses Precious Memories of disposing of animals at a landfill or burying animals in mass graves when general group cremations were requested.
Both vets also claim in the lawsuit that they were billed for claw paw impressions that were not provided for the animal specified. The alleged fraud was discovered around September 2022, the lawsuit says. Both companies say the fraud has impacted their business and reputations and they're seeking financial damages through the lawsuit.
Below is the full statement from Staggs, which was provided by an attorney for the company.
"We were shocked to learn of the allegations made against Precious Memories. We take pride in handling each cremation and burial with care. We are in full compliance with all laws and regulations related to our business.
We aim to be fully transparent and we invite any pet owner or vet clinic to come into our business and understand the process of cremation and burial of all animals we care for. Transparency has been our mission since the inception of our business."
The Larimer County Sheriff's Office said it was not aware of any complaints about the business and said a preliminary search didn't turn up any criminal cases associated with the address of Precious Memories.
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