A FORMER funeral director is returning to his roots to cater for a very special type of customer.

Geoff Hobson, 50, from Tockholes, followed in his father's footsteps when he became a funeral director before moving abroad to take up a career in engineering.

But now, after returning to East Lancashire, he is on the verge of setting up a funeral business...for pets.

Geoff, said: "My dad set up his own funeral business and I worked with him for the about five or six years until he passed away.

"I then moved over to Holland in the 80s where I worked in engineering before moving into a sales job.

"But over the past 18 months I have been yearning to get back into the industry but I didn't know whether to go back into the human aspect or not.

"Then a few months ago a very good friend lost her dog and was very traumatised. The biggest problem was that they didn't know what to do.

"If a human being dies you know straight away what to do but it is different with a pet.

"One and a half million animals in this country die every year, and that amounts to an awful lot of pets. But a vet can only do so much.

"What people should be allowed to do is organise something themselves."

Geoff, who has two horses and four cats, will run Avalon Pet Funeral Service from his home, but hopes to establish a funeral home for pets in the near future.

As part of the service. a percentage of the fee for any of the funerals he organises will be donated to an animal charity relevant to the pet concerned.

Geoff said: "We will be able to handle any kind of pet from a hamster to a dog or even a horse.

"We will be able to offer a chapel of rest service and organise a hearse for the pet and a vehicle to collect the owner if they don't have any transport to take them to the pet cemetery.

"We can also organise a simple funeral service, which can be carried out either by the cemetery staff or possibly a member of clergy, and arrange for the pets ashes to be returned to the family in a casket with a name plate attached, if that is what they wish.

"We can also organise for a headstone to be erected."

Geoff added: "It is all down to what people want.

"We are talking about animals who have in some cases spent years devoting their lives to their owners.

"The least we can do is given them a last send off in a fit and proper manner - and this is what we are aiming to do."

For more information ring 01254 776868, go to www.avalonpetfunerals.co.uk or email enquiries@avalonpet

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