Roy Soediono, 54, and Juliwati, 54, said a silent prayer while staring at the furnace, which was spewing orange flames. Their beloved 13-year-old Labrador named Chelsea, who had died recently, was being cremated.

“She had been suffering over the past three weeks because of a tumor that was close to her breasts,” Roy told The Jakarta Post last Wednesday.

Before her death, Roy explained that Chelsea could not move or eat and breathed heavily. The couple then visited a veterinarian to get some medicine for their beloved furry friend.

“The vet said she was suffering a lot,” he said, adding that he and Juliwati then decided to put Chelsea down to end her suffering.

The couple and their three children were grief-stricken after Chelsea’s death because the beloved canine had been a family pet for more than a decade. After she died, Roy said, they wanted to have a special funeral service for her.

They then took the dead dog to city-run animal shelter Pondok Pengayom Satwa Jakarta (PPSJ) in Ragunan, South Jakarta, to have it cremated.

Roy said it was not the first time he had lost a dog. He previously had a Pekinese who died of old age at 17 and was buried at a park close to his house in Joglo, Kembangan, West Jakarta.

With limited space in the city, Roy said, it was more convenient to have Chelsea cremated.

“We can also put her ashes in an urn and keep it at home to remember her,” he added.

The PPSJ was founded on Aug. 28, 1987, by Soeprapti Soeprapto, the wife of then-Jakarta governor R. Soeprapto, to take care of dogs and cats.

Currently, its other services include veterinarian care, boarding services, as well as funerary rites for pets. They can either be buried at the shelter or cremated.

The PPSJ has over 600 pet graves, mostly cats and dogs.

Lines of small gravestones fill in one section of the PPSJ. They are all adorned with pet names, birth and death dates as well as parting words from owners.

One gravestone, which belongs to a 9-year old dog named Jojo who died in 2015, read: “Stole mom’s McD, stole donuts, stole bread […] stole our hearts. Friends and family, see you in Heaven buddy. Mom, Dad, Ian.”

In another part of the shelter, 58-year-old Tukidjo supervises a small pet crematorium. His other duties include cleaning the crematorium and pet cemetery.

“[We cremate] mostly cats and dogs, sometimes other pets as well such as monkeys or even snakes,” Tukidjo told the Post.

Two to three animals are cremated every day.

Tukidjo explained, that some owners wanted to view the cremation process and even held a small ceremony to honor and say their final goodbyes to their beloved pets.

He added that he always made sure that the ashes do not get mixed up and only cremated one pets at a time.

“Some pet owners cry during the ceremony and cremation, that’s how much they love their pets,” Tukidjo said.

He uses kerosene to light the fire and it normally takes about an hour for cats as well as small dogs and around two hours for large dogs to be cremated.

Afterwards, Tukidjo clears the remaining ashes and bones and if an owner requests it, he puts the remains in an urn.

The price for the service at the PPSJ starts at Rp 300,000 (US$21.30) for a pet weighing 5 kilograms. It charges an extra Rp 20,000 for each additional kg.

It costs from Rp 400,000 to Rp 1.5 million, depending on the weight of the pet, for the animals to be buried at the shelter.

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