House Bill 564: Ensuring Transparency Of Care of Our Beloved Pets’ Remains

By Ryan Helfenbein

Most people in Maryland treat their pets like family. We throw them birthday parties, buy them better food than we eat ourselves, and cry our eyes out when they pass. But here’s the part that might surprise you: when your pet dies, the business that handles their remains is barely regulated at all. That’s what House Bill 564 is trying to change. The bill would set basic best-practice rules for pet cremation and aftercare businesses – rules that are already standard across most service industries in Maryland.

Meanwhile, human funeral homes and crematories are under strict state oversight. They have to be licensed, inspected, permitted, and monitored by the Maryland State Board of Morticians and Funeral Directors. There are rules about how remains are handled, documented, and returned to families. That makes sense, because this work is emotional, personal, and serious. So, here’s the uncomfortable question: why are businesses that handle the remains of our pets – who are family to many of us – allowed to operate with far fewer rules and almost no real oversight?

If you think this is just theoretical, it’s not. The podcast episode, “The Troubled Cremation of Stevie the Cat,” exposed how messed up the pet cremation world can be when there’s little accountability. It was learned that grieving pet owners were told their cat would be privately cremated, only to discover that the process was misrepresented and there was no reliable way to prove the ashes they got back were actually their pet’s. Let that sink in for a second. People trusted a company with one of the hardest moments of their lives – and had no real way to verify they weren’t being lied to. Even when companies aren’t trying to scam anyone, the lack of rules and tracking makes mistakes way too easy. And when mistakes happen here, it’s not just paperwork that gets messed up – it’s people’s grief.

There’s another piece of this which most pet owners never think about: many veterinarians in our area rely on large, out-of-state pet cremation companies that serve hundreds of clinics at once. In some cases, that means your pet may leave Maryland entirely for cremation. Even if HB 564 passes, Maryland’s rules may not apply once your pet crosses state lines. That doesn’t automatically mean anything improper is happening – but it does mean families often have very little knowledge about where their pet is going, how the process works, or what standards apply at the facility handling their remains. When services are centralized and operate at high volume, consumers are asked to trust a system they rarely see. Asking simple questions about where your pet is sent, how they are transported, who is responsible for their care, and what oversight exists isn’t about suspicion – it’s about transparency, and transparency is what builds real trust. 

There is a better way to do this, and it’s already happening right here in Maryland. Shore Pet Cremation on the Eastern Shore is owned by a licensed funeral home, which means it operates under the same professional rules and oversight as human funeral services. That brings real standards, inspections, and accountability into the picture – stuff most pet cremation companies aren’t required to follow. For pet owners, that’s huge. When you’re grieving, you shouldn’t be left wondering if your pet was handled with care or if the ashes you received are actually your pet’s. Shore Pet Cremation shows this can be done the right way, and it raises an important question for the rest of us: why aren’t more funeral homes offering this kind of trusted, regulated pet aftercare? It’s worth asking your local funeral home what options they provide – or why they don’t.

HB 564 isn’t about bureaucracy. It’s about dragging a quiet, emotional industry into the light. Right now, pet owners are trusting companies with something deeply personal, often without realizing how few rules those companies actually have to follow. The “Stevie the Cat” story shows how badly things can go wrong. The widespread use of out-of-state cremation companies shows how responsibility can potentially disappear across state lines. And businesses like Shore Pet Cremation show that higher standards are not only possible – they’re already available. The real shock isn’t that Maryland is trying to regulate pet cremation. The real shock is that for so long, almost no one was watching at all.

Learn more at https://legiscan.com/MD/bill/HB564/2026.

Ryan, owner, supervising mortician and preplanning counselor at Lasting Tributes on Bestgate Road in Annapolis, offers area residents solutions to high-cost funerals. He can be contacted at (410) 897-4852 or [email protected].