Many pet parents don’t feel comfortable discussing the subject of pet death. And yet, the National Animal Interest Alliance once reported that around 6.2 million dogs pass away annually.
The unavoidable truth is that losing a pet can be particularly distressing. Despite that, it remains a vital part of pet parenting.
A lot of times, pet parents depend on veterinarians to direct them to available options for after-life care. Unfortunately, many veterinarians themselves aren’t trained for these types of conversations. Instead, most veterinarians are dependent on pet crematories to alleviate the mystery of what happens to one’s pet after leaving them.
Wanting to help educate pet parents, Bob and Annette Jenkins created Let Your Love Grow, the world’s first carbon-neutral product for pet memorialization and communal cremation.
Ideal for pet parents who don’t want their pet’s ashes returned, it lets pet parents create a personal memorial of their pet’s ashes while reducing the negative environmental impact of cremation.
Bob shared,
“There’s so much mystique and unknown (about pet death). We wanted to pull away the curtains and open it up and let people understand that there are choices available after pet death that can be soothing and therapeutic to a parent.”
A Living Memorial to Let Your Love Grow
Founded in 2009, Let Your Love Grow came out as a result of Bob’s and Annette’s own experience of pet loss.
Back then, the only options for communal cremations for pets were mass burials or the landfill. However, the thought didn’t appeal to Bob and Annette, as they preferred to continue the cycle of life of their beloved pets.
“We hate the word ‘grief’, but grief is the price that we pay for love. And the pet gives us such unconditional love. And when that time comes, we want to make sure we understand what our choices are… There are so many years that we took care of that pet. We wanted to allow that…nurturing to continue and not replace another pet but fill in it as you got another pet and move forward. Because once you have an opening in your heart for pet love, that opening is never fulfilled again with another pet. It just opens up a new space.”
Wanting to provide other options for pet parents like them, they decided to create a product that will allow the cremated remains of pets to live on in the environment in a safe fashion.
“We found that to be very therapeutic for families because they’re in that grief cycle. And if they’ve got something that they can watch grow and nurture along the way, then that helps that grief cycle as well. And that’s a beautiful reminder of that life. That was so, so much a part of their lives,”
said Annette.
Let Your Love Grow Nourishes Life from Death
Aside from providing therapy to pet parents who lost their pets, what adds to the uniqueness of Let Your Love Grow is its environment-friendliness.
Bob remarked,
“So many times, we call them ashes, but they’re not ashes. They’re actually bone. And the toxic elements of the bone are the high pH, which keeps any element within the bone from being released into the environment, and the sodium content. The sodium content is what’s toxic to plant life. It’s anywhere from 200 to 2000 times than what plants can tolerate.”
Not wanting the cremation ashes of their pets to harm plant life, Bob and Annette then looked for ways to dilute the sodium and lower the pH contents.
First, they worked with a team of forensic scientists, forensic anthropologists, landscape architects, and plant and soil scientists who can help them understand the soil properties and its effects.
They spent endless hours of research to ensure that they don’t disrupt the ecosystem once the ashes are placed on top of or in the earth. They also want to make sure that the bone truly goes back to the environment.
The result: a patented Let Your Love Grow organic mixture that they blended with the ashes. The product helps offset the release of greenhouse gas by facilitating plant growth, thus making the planet a little greener.
For pet parents who prefer cremating their pets, this also opens the door to numerous possibilities for creating a more personalized and loving memorial.
Sharing their vision for the future, Bob and Annette said,
“We want to make it as easy as possible to go to the next step in life. And that’s really where we come from. And what kind of impact can we have on the environment. Because we have to be conscious of what we’re doing. You know, we think about our day-to-day practices, but nobody thinks about the afterlife care, what the effect is on the environment. So, that’s our mission.”
Learn more about Let Your Love Grow!
Visit their website at www.letyourlovegrow.com.
