Snežana from Belgrade remembered the welcome of 2018 well.
Instead of watching movies with her friend all New Year's Eve, at seven in the evening they informed her that her dog Laki had been hit by a car.
They spent the evening in the veterinary clinic, where a black mixed breed, similar to a dachshund, had its leg amputated.
Before midnight they brought him home on a stretcher, Laki got up briefly "in terrible pain", looked at the two cats with whom he had lived "wonderfully" for years and died in about half an hour.
"Even now that I'm talking, it's hard for me.
"The vet explained to me that the problem was that the driver braked, that's how the leg was crushed, if he had just hit him, without braking, the dog would have been better," Snezana told the BBC.
The December night when Laki died was cold and the ground was hard, but Snow White decided to bury him in the yard immediately - "so that he would be close to them".
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Although it often happens that people bury their pets themselves, this is not recommended for many reasons, warns Budimir Grubić, director of Veterina Beograd.
After several years of waiting, the pet cemetery in Block 51 in New Belgrade is finally open and owners have the opportunity to bury their animals there.
If they don't want to, they can hand over the remains of animals to municipal services or call private crematoriums, but everything is paid for.
If there had been a pet cemetery in Belgrade before, Snežana would probably have used that opportunity.
"We didn't have a cemetery, and we wanted to have the memory of that dog, even the cats came while we were digging for crayfish," she recounts.
What does the new cemetery look like?
The newly opened cemetery for pets in Rajkova street number 9 on Bežanijska kosa covers about 1.000 square meters, and if necessary, it can also expand towards the forest, officials announced last September when it was built.
There is also a memorial park (rose garden) where the ashes of cremated animals can be spread, as well as a separate area for joint burials.
"No animals have been buried here yet, but people are very interested in our services.
"We are initially limited to 839 grave sites, and there are 200.000 registered pets in the territory of Belgrade," says manager Marija Glišović for the BBC in Serbian.
Originally, it was planned that a grave site could not be leased in advance, so that there would be no abuses, but many people really need it, so it will be adjusted as it goes along.
The incinerator in Lešće has not started working yet, but it is expected soon, adds the manager.
The price of burial depends on whether it is a small, medium or large pet and ranges from approximately 17.700, 24.000 to 32.000, but in addition there are costs for a cold storage room and a five-year lease that could cost around 50.000 dinars.
Services of flowers, video or audio recording of the funeral from the farewell hall are optional.
"It is ungrateful to say in advance, but everyone will receive an estimate and precise information on our phone numbers," says Glišović.
You can report a death by calling 0698551240 24 hours a day, and for additional information, call 0698551241 during business hours.
There are pictures of pets on the interior walls of the administration building, and they have a separate funeral hall, with white satin, plastic flowers, a TV screen with music, from where the remains will be taken to the cemetery that surrounds the building.
Along with the concrete bordering the future burial places are ornamental plants and a few rose bushes.
A special part is marked for the urns of cremated animals, and at the bottom of the yard there is a cold store and a veterinary clinic where it will be checked if the animal is infected.
How will the cemetery function?
- Pets, which are kept for companionship and registered in the territory of the city of Belgrade, include dogs, cats, pigeons, ornamental poultry, exotic and wild animals.
- The grave site or the place for placing the urn is leased for a period of up to ten years, with the possibility of extension
- The burial should take place at the newly built pet cemetery in the area of the city municipality of Novi Beograd, in Block 51, and the cremation of the remains in the crematorium within the Lešće cemetery.
- At grave sites for burial, users can place a monument with a maximum height of up to 60 centimeters and no wider than the grave site.
- After the first burial, other pets of the user of the burial site can be buried in the same grave site, which is decided by the company depending on how much time has passed since the last burial and how old the animal was buried.
- In the cemetery for pets, it is forbidden to light candles and perform religious ceremonies, as well as to sell any goods without the permission of the company, as well as to leave food on grave sites
- The cemetery is open to visitors every day in the summer from 7 a.m. to 19 p.m., and in winter from October 1 to March 31 from 7 a.m. to 18 p.m.
* Source: Decision on burying pets of the City of Belgrade
Everything is paid for
As before, the owners of animals that die can contact the Komunalna zoohijijena company, which in Belgrade collects the corpses of pets from the streets, when they are injured in traffic or die, and also takes away dead domestic animals or snakes.
Available, they state, 24 hours a day.
"We also work with owner's dogs, the owners can bring the pet to us or invite us to come, it depends on how they want to say goodbye to him," says Budimir Grubić, director of Veterina Beograd, which manages Zoo Hygiene, for the BBC in Serbian.
If they opt for this harmless removal - in Belgrade, it is necessary to set aside 2.100 dinars for this, if they take them to the rendering plant in Ovča themselves, or 3.100 dinars if they hand them over to the management of the company.
Those who want Zoo Hygiene to take away a dead dog or cat from their apartment or house should pay 3.500 dinars.
"The price is low enough not to burden anyone's budget.
"Those who, like some pensioners, don't even have that much, can pay in installments," says Grubić.
How is it in the rest of Serbia?
Depending on whether they want to bury, burn or ship the corpse of a pet to a rendering plant, owners deliver the remains to operators, while the burial of pet corpses on their own land is organized by the owners themselves, the competent Ministry of Agriculture told the BBC.
- Pet corpses can be shipped to approved facilities - in Belgrade, Vršac, Kikinda, Kraljevo, Vrnjačka Banja, Pančevo.
- Livestock cemeteries and burial pits for pets, which are registered in the Register of Objects of the Veterinary Administration, exist in Belgrade, Bačka Topla, Kraljevo, Loznica, Niš and Subotica.
- There are several incinerators - in Pancevo, Belgrade and Titel.
Where do the remains go next?
When local utility companies, such as Belgrade's Zoohigijena, collect dead animals, they usually take them to Ćuprija or Inđija to the company Energo zelena, both facilities are state-owned.
In Inđija, corpses are thermally processed, i.e. cooked, unlike crematoriums, where they are burned.
People cannot call this rendering plant directly, but everything goes through animal hygiene services, they say from Energo zelena and add that their main job is cooperation with farms and slaughterhouses, i.e. the processing of waste from large animals such as cattle and pigs.
"Dead pets belong to secondary products of animal origin, so they end up with us, but it is an extremely small share," says the company.
In some cities, such as Valjeva, the communal company takes dead animals to a designated place in the nearby village of Zlatarić and buries them there, although there is no official cemetery.
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Cremations and more
In addition to cemeteries, owners have private crematoria at their disposal, but only in larger cities in Serbia.
The Petbaj company has been working, as they state, with the permission of the competent authorities, to cremate pets in Belgrade for six years.
"There is more and more work, but the problem is that the vast majority of people still do not know that there is a crematorium.
"Our marketing hands are totally tied, we can't hand out flyers in buildings or pay for billboards, because it's unnatural for me while walking my dog to hand out business cards to others and tell them that their animals will die," says Zoran Tomić, the company's director.
Their incinerator is located in a pine forest in Vrčin, it was built according to European standards, he adds.
They offer individual cremation services for dogs and cats, at a price of 12.000 to 22.000 dinars, depending on the size of the animal or group cremations, which are cheaper.
It is also possible to cremate dead smaller pets such as fish or hamsters, and they also offer the transportation of remains for owners in the territory of Belgrade and Novi Sad, as well as other cities, but this is paid for additionally.
Tomić says that he has been a "dog owner" for 35 years and that they visited cemeteries and crematoriums for pets in Vienna and Mention it in Zagreb, but there is not too much interest, says Tomić.
He adds that people in Serbia sometimes don't even pay for urns in a humane cemetery, because when the period of mourning is over, they neglect their obligations.
Their company also offers to buy the pet's ashes in special urns or to make diamonds from the ashes.
There is a crematorium for pets in Novi Sad, which also transports dead animals from the veterinary clinic or the owner's apartment, and cremation prices are from 8.500 to 24.000 dinars.
The Petaklu website also offers scrapbook, like an obituary page, where people say goodbye to their pets.
A third company, which deals with similar work, also offers cremation recording services, and it is necessary to allocate 600 dinars for that recording.
With them, it is also possible to pay for burial at a price of 2.000 to 6.000 dinars, depending on the size of the animal.
For Snow White, cremation was not an option for the pet she speaks about with great emotion.
Laki came to their house ten years ago and got along so well with her two big cats in the yard that they were an interesting attraction for journalists as well.
"He was a very intelligent dog, he knew what he shouldn't do, but he always crossed the line a little, just to win freedom.
"He was also a real fool, the cats and he had that cute look, 'we've never eaten', 'no one cares about us, we're eager for love to be petted,'" he recounts with a smile.
Shared moments for Snow White are "priceless".
"We spent a lot of time together and it was nice," he says with a smile.
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