01/24/2026
To Our Valued Families and Community,
After twenty years of serving our community, we are writing with heavy hearts to share that Metro Pet Crematory will be closing.
For two decades, it has been our privilege to care for your beloved pets during one of the hardest moments a family can face. Every animal entrusted to us mattered. Every goodbye mattered. We never took lightly the responsibility you placed in our hands, and we approached our work with compassion, respect, and care—every single day.
Metro Pet Crematory was built as a family business, rooted in the belief that pets are family. We are pet owners ourselves, and we understood the depth of loss because we have lived it too. Our goal was always simple: to provide gentle, dignified aftercare and to support families with honesty and kindness during an incredibly emotional time.
We are deeply grateful to the thousands of families who trusted us, shared their stories, sent kind notes, and allowed us to be part of their pet’s final journey. Your words, your gratitude, and your memories have meant more to us than we can ever express.
While this chapter is coming to a close, the impact of the relationships we’ve built will stay with us forever. Serving this community has been an honour we will always carry with pride.
From our family to yours—thank you for allowing us to walk beside you when it mattered most.
With sincere gratitude and compassion,
Edward Rhindress, Owner
Metro Pet Crematory
* Please note that any pets at our facility receiving private cremation services will continue to be handled with our usual high standards of care. Families will be notified when services are complete, and pickup arrangements will be coordinated at that time.
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To Our Veterinary Hospital Partners,
After twenty years of operating Metro Pet Crematory as a family-owned, locally rooted business, I am writing to formally inform you that we will be closing our doors.
This decision was not made lightly, nor was it unavoidable.
Over the past several years—and with accelerating speed—we have watched independently owned veterinary hospitals sold off to large corporate entities headquartered outside our province and, in some cases, outside our country, as well as new large hospitals open up with no ownership roots in our area. With those acquisitions came top-down decisions to abandon long-standing local partners in favour of a large-scale corporate crematory—selected for convenience, contracts, or consolidation rather than quality, history, or service.
In plain terms: our business was given away.
Not because of performance.
Not because of service failures.
Not because of pricing.
Not because of client complaints.
But because independent relationships no longer fit corporate models.
At the same time, we watched a widening financial imbalance take hold. Client-facing cremation and aftercare fees were steadily increased at the hospital level—often substantially—while we were expected to continue operating under suppressed wholesale rates that did not reflect rising costs, labour, compliance, fuel, or inflation. The result was a system where corporate entities improved margins at retail, while independent service providers were asked to absorb the pressure and “make it work.”
That model is neither sustainable nor equitable.
For two decades, Metro Pet Crematory served your hospitals, your staff, and—most importantly—your clients with integrity, transparency, and care. We built our reputation one family, one pet, and one relationship at a time. That loyalty and consistency were not reciprocated when decisions were made to prioritize corporate alignment and margin over long-standing local partnership.
The result is the closure of a twenty-year family business, the loss of local jobs, and the removal of an independent service provider that existed solely to support the veterinary community and grieving pet owners—not shareholders.
This letter is not posted for sympathy. It is posted for clarity.
Corporate consolidation has consequences. This is one of them.
Metro Pet Crematory will cease operations January 24th, 2026. Further logistical details will be communicated separately where applicable.
Sincerely,
Edward Rhindress, Owner
Metro Pet Crematory
* Please note that any pets at our facility receiving private cremation services will continue to receive our usual high standard of care. Urn deliveries to hospitals will be coordinated over the coming days.
