Matt and Rebekah Deal of Morrison Funeral Home are excited to announce a new capability to their funeral business. They are now able to handle the furry, feathered, and scaley members of your family through a state-of-the-art process called alkaline hydrolysis, water cremation, or Aquamation.

Until now, local pet families experiencing a death had to rely on out-of-town businesses to assist them with performing a traditional cremation for their loved one. Seeing this need, the Deals began researching how they could grow their business to help local families and they created Oil Valley Pet Aquamation.

Matt says, “We were drawn to Aquamation for several reasons. Water is such an important part of our lives. Our bodies are made up of 60% water, we vacation around water, and here in the Oil Region, we’re surrounded by water trails and just to our north, a great lake. We also liked how gentle the process was as compared to traditional flame-based cremation. With Aquamation, the temperature never gets above 204 F and we’re able to return ashes from the smallest pets that would not be possible with cremation.”

Aquamation is environmentally friendly, with no emissions and less than 1/10th the carbon fuel footprint of cremation. Here in the Oil Region, there is a proud tradition of innovation that began with the first oil wells, and Matt and Rebekah say they want to continue being leaders and innovators in the region. Their Pet-400 machine is just the second one in the state!

Check out oilvalleypets.com or find them on Facebook for more information.

This article was published in the Venango Chamber’s June 2023 VenangoWorks! Newsletter.