Is Your Pet Crematory Owned by Gateway? How to Check

Most families never ask who owns the crematory. Your vet mentions a name, or you search for a crematory near you, and the names all sound local, because most of them were local once: a family business with a family name, serving one town.

Many still are. Others were bought and kept their names. From the outside they look identical, and that matters in two practical ways. If you call three crematories to compare and two belong to the same company, you have two choices, not three. And if your vet is sending your pet somewhere you did not pick, you should know who that is and that you are allowed to choose.

Who is Gateway Services?

Gateway Services Inc. describes itself as "the largest pet aftercare provider in North America." Its website lists "over 150+ Locations" and "over 2,000 Team Members", and states its strategy plainly: "Our focus is to acquire and partner with like-minded, leading pet aftercare companies across all of North America." Its partnership page is addressed to crematory owners "considering retirement in the next 1-5 years."

Gateway's website is written mainly for veterinary clinics, not families. It is built around "Gateway clinics" and "partner clinics", which send their patients' bodies to a Gateway crematory and use its tracking system, Paws e-Track. That is why many families end up with a Gateway brand without ever choosing one: the clinic chose it.

Gateway is not the only group of its kind. Pet Passages operates around 21 pet funeral homes as a franchise network, and Resting Waters in Seattle was acquired into Evvi Aftercare. But Gateway is the largest group we found in our research across 174 US cities.

Which pet crematories does Gateway own?

Gateway publishes its own brand directory. As of October 2026, it sends families in each US state to these brands:

The same page shows logos for more names without a link of their own: Animal Memorial Services, Bubbling Well Pet Memorial Park, Regency and Unforgettable Pets in Slidell, Forget-Me-Not in Massachusetts, PRCS, Peaceful Pets Aquamation and Eco Animal. In Canada it trades as Gateway Pet Memorial and, in Quebec, Crémanimo.

Be careful with similar names. Independent businesses sometimes share a word with a Gateway brand: Forget Me Not Pet Aquamation in Minneapolis, Peaceful Pets in the Dallas area and Gateway Pet Cemetery in San Bernardino showed no Gateway connection on their own websites when we checked. Use the test below rather than the name.

How can I tell if a crematory is part of Gateway?

Scroll to the bottom of the website and read the footer. That is where it is almost always disclosed, even when it appears nowhere else.

• "Powered By Gateway" in the footer, as on West Coast Pet Memorial and Peaceful Pets Aquamation.
• A privacy policy or careers link that opens on gatewayservicesinc.com or poweredbygateway.com, as on Abbey Glen and Final Gift.
• An old name that now lands on a Gateway site. Rest Assured Pet Cremation in Eugene, Oregon is one example: its web address now opens West Coast Pet Memorial.

Three other tells work for any group, not only Gateway:

1. A "For Veterinarians" or "Become a Provider" section. A single family crematory does not usually recruit other crematories.
2. A location list that crosses state lines. A business with facilities in five states is not a local business, whatever the name suggests.
3. Identical page layouts and wording across two crematories you are comparing. If they feel like the same website with different logos, they usually are.

Why do we not recommend Gateway brands?

Because we cannot compare them for you, and comparing is the whole point of this site. We have three specific reasons, and none of them is a claim that the care is poor.

1. No published prices. On the eight main Gateway brand sites we checked in October 2026, we found no prices and no pricing page. Many of the independent crematories we feature publish theirs, so a family can compare before calling.
2. Names that read as local and independent. Ownership appears only in the footer or the privacy policy, which no family reads in the week their dog died.
3. A business built around the clinic, not the family. When the clinic chooses the crematory, the family may never see the crematory's own price or an alternative.

To be fair to Gateway: its site says its "facilities are locally managed, with staff who live and work in the communities they serve," and its partnership page says the day to day operations of an acquired business stay the same. That is often true. Many locations are the same buildings and the same people who ran them before. Its barcode tracking is a genuine strength. We have no evidence that a Gateway location treats pets worse than an independent, and we do not claim it.

What if my vet is sending my pet to a Gateway crematory?

You can ask, and you can choose. Even many independent vets use a Gateway crematory. In our own research, in-home euthanasia vets in Norfolk, Richmond and Greenville rely on Agape for some or all of their cremations. So do vets in Birmingham with Pet Angel, around Boston, Bridgeport and Albany with Final Gift, in Cheyenne with Lasting Paws, and in Tyler with Fond Memories. We say so on those city pages.

Three questions to ask your vet:

1. Which crematory do you use, and where is it?
2. Is the cremation private, and what does private mean there? Our guide to private versus communal cremation explains the terms, including the "individual" cremations where several pets share the chamber.
3. What is the total price, in writing? Some clinics add their own handling fee on top of the crematory's charge.

If you would rather use someone else, say so. You can call a crematory yourself and have it collect your pet from the clinic or your home. Our guide to what the vet does with your pet's body explains how this works and what it usually costs.

No federal rule requires a pet crematory to give you a price list. For human funerals, the FTC Funeral Rule gives families the right to price information on the telephone and a written, itemized General Price List. It does not cover pet aftercare, but it is a fair standard to ask any pet crematory to meet.

What should I ask before I choose?

These questions tell you more than the ownership does. Ask them of any provider, Gateway or independent:

1. Where is my pet actually cremated? Some providers collect and transport to a facility elsewhere. That is normal, but you should know the address.
2. How do you identify my pet through the process? A numbered metal disc that stays with the body is the standard answer.
3. What is the total price, including collection and return? Transport is often billed separately and can add $100 or more. Our pet cremation cost guide has typical ranges.
4. Are you accredited? According to the International Association of Pet Cemeteries and Crematories, founded in 1971, its accreditation program evaluates crematories against more than 450 standards for pet cremation care and crematory management.

Our guide to choosing a pet aftercare provider covers the rest of the checklist.

What did we find when we checked our own listings?

We think we owe you this, since we make recommendations.

When we first researched this article in August 2026, we found that several providers featured on our city pages were Gateway brands, and we had not said so anywhere a reader could see.

We changed the rule. Since September 2026 we do not feature Gateway brands on our city pages. Where a Gateway location is the nearest or the only option, we still name it and say who owns it, because telling you there is nothing nearby when a crematory is a few miles away would not help you. When an independent provider we feature uses a Gateway crematory, we say that too. In October 2026 a full audit of our pages found two featured Gateway brands we had missed, in Austin and Portland, and we replaced both with independent providers.

We would rather tell you we got something wrong than quietly fix it.

Does this change what I should do right now?

Probably not much, and we do not want to add a decision to a week that already has too many.

If your pet has already been cremated by a Gateway brand, nothing has gone wrong: the ashes come back to you the same way. If you are still choosing, spend two minutes checking whether your shortlist is three companies or one, and compare at least one independent crematory that publishes its prices. Our city guides list vetted independent crematories in 174 US cities, with prices wherever they publish them.