PUSLINCH – When horses reach the end of their lives, many owners grapple with the decision about how to lay them to rest.
Burial is a common option for those with the land and equipment to dig a deep enough grave for a horse, and only if the ground isn’t too frozen.
Another option is to use a rendering service – that’s grounding and cooking the carcass to convert its tissue into usable materials such as animal feed or fuel. While rendering is a common way to dispose of livestock, many people want a different way to lay their horse to rest.
Barn Angels Composting in Halton Hills composts livestock including horses. Carcasses are composted above ground with wood chips and coffee grounds. After composting, the soil is used to fertilize trees and for conservation and revitalization projects along Sixteen Mile Creek. While composting is a popular option, some horse owners don’t like the idea of the slow process, and want to end up with ashes they can keep.
A fourth option is cremation, though since the recent closure of Ontario Equine Cremations, this service is not offered anywhere in Ontario, leaving many horse owners to spend thousands to transport their horses to Quebec to have them cremated there.
So Juliana Heppler and Michelle Seberras decided to open an equine cremation business in Freelton, just outside of Puslinch, to service Ontario.
For almost a year, they thought everything was coming together and they even started providing the cremation service.
The business, called Eternal Equine, offered aquamation rather than traditional, heat-based cremation. With aquamation, the carcass is soaked in potassium hydroxide and water.
Within about 20 hours, the carcass breaks down into water and calcium – a totally sterile product rich in nutrients.
Like with traditional cremation, the bones are ground and returned to the owner in an urn.
Heppler said it’s an eco-friendly option as, unlike traditional cremation, no smoke or emissions are produced.
She and Seberras purchased an aquamation machine for about $300,000, picked it up in Indiana and hauled it to their Freelton facility, just outside Puslinch, Heppler said.
Eternal Equine had municipal approval and provided the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness (OMAFA)with the information needed for a permit, she told the Advertiser.
She said an OMAFA official told them cremation was permitted in Ontario and that getting a permit would not be a problem.
“The whole time they were like ‘yeah, we can get this going, its just a matter of what paperwork to fill out,” she explained.
After months of waiting on the permit, Heppler asked OMAFA if there were regulations about offering the aquamation service on clients’ properties instead of at the facility.
The aquamation machine is a mobile unit on a trailer so it is easily transportable.
“She said ‘no,’” Heppler said – meaning there aren’t regulations if the service is offered on the property where the horse died.
“I should have asked more questions,” Heppler said. “But to me that seemed like ‘Okay, you can do it.’ So we started advertising, and went out and did a couple of horses. It went really well,” she said.
“In my mind [OMAFA] knew – we had a whole conversation.”
After a few months Heppler said she called OMAFA to ask for an update and casually told an OMAFA official, “‘Yeah, we’ve done a couple, people seem to really like it.’”
The official seemed shocked, and OMAFA sent them an order to stop.
“Not regulated doesn’t mean it’s legal,” Heppler said, on reflection. “I felt really stupid. We shut things down.”
An engineer came out and inspected the machine and facility and collected further information for a permit.
About four months later, Heppler and Seberras found out it was not approved.
“They just denied it. They said ‘this just isn’t in the regulations … we can’t make it fit into any of the categories,’” Heppler said.
Ontario’s Nutriant Management Act, which regulates deadstock disposal, does not mention cremation. According to an OMAFA spokesperson, “equine cremation is not a licensable activity” under the act.
The Advertiser asked OMAFA officials why equine cremation is not included in the act and whether there is movement to amend it, but they did not respond in time for publication.
They also did not confirm whether Ontario Equine Cremation was licensed with the ministry, why it took so long to deny Eternal Equine’s permit, or why an engineer inspected the equine cremation machine when equine cremation is not permitted in Ontario.
Heppler said an OMAFA official told her “‘it’s just a regulation thing – we have nothing against it, we are just the enforcement. If you want it changed, you basically have to have a politician to champion your cause.”
Heppler contacted local MPPs, but hasn’t found anyone interested in taking it on.
OMAFA’s process allows for an appeal hearing, so Heppler and Seberras requested one, to find out what the issues were and what they could do to meet regulation. “We wanted to have that conversation.”
But Heppler said the appeal process was just about proving they could fit into an existing category, such as rendering or composting, and could not help them get a permit for cremation.
They applied to the Ministry of Red Tape Reduction with an assistance request, but have not yet received a response.
“So our business is done,” Heppler said. “We don’t have the money to keep the facility while waiting indefinitely for a change that might never come.”
Heppler officially ended the lease on Feb. 5.
“It’s really unfortunate for horse owners to have to chose between sending their horse to rendering or spend $6,000 plus to be sent to Quebec where our technology is currently being used,” Heppler said, noting the Quebec location has two aquamation machines like the one Eternal Equine purchased.
