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Horseytalk.net Special Interview
David Funnell

www.petcrem.com

David FunnellIt’s the last thing any rider wants to think about.
Until the time comes.

How to say, Goodbye.

In the old days it was straightforward and, maybe, crude and unthinking. Certainly, there was little emotion about it. A call to the nearest Hunt or to the local knackerman.

Mysterious, anonymous, broken-down vans. Sheets of tarpaulin. Long lengths of rope. Two, sometimes three, men dragging the body into the back of the van. If the legs got in the way, a saw was always at hand to solve the problem. Maybe a hot cup of tea in the kitchen afterwards for the men. Maybe not.

At the Hunt kennels or even in strange, filthy buildings in the middle of nowhere , it was straight into a grim, primitive, ancient butchering shop, known as the “flesh house” or the “meat room” with lumps of flesh and bones all over the place. Maybe dogs wandering around. Rats all over the place. The stench would be horrendous. In the middle of summer, it was virtually impossible to breathe.

Today it’s all changed.

Partly because of ever stricter Government legislation about the control and slaughtering of animals.
Partly because of the decline in the number and size of Hunts and the services they can provide.
Partly because of the changing attitudes of horse and pony owners.
And partly because today people like David Funnell provide all the services and facilities that did not exist in the old days.

“Up to about 20-years ago,” he says, “people never gave it a second thought. It was the way things were done. I can remember as a kid going out with my Dad, who was in the local hunt. It was somewhere near Ashford. I saw them shoot a pony and drag it into a lorry. It was pretty grim. But that’s what people did in those days.

“Today, it’s different. Owners want their horses treated with dignity. They have been faithful servants to them all their lives. They feel they owe it to them to ensure they are treated with respect and dignity at the end of their lives.”

A member of the famous Funnell family – His elder brother is top showjumper, William, who is, of course, married to Pippa - David is the founder of Cherry Tree Pet and Equine Crematorium, one of the biggest horse and pony crematoria in the South East.

Born and brought up in and around Challock, near Canterbury, Kent, his father was John Funnell, farmer, member of the Tickham Hunt and a famous, local showjumper, who regularly competed at Hickstead..

When David left school he went to work for Stevenson Brothers, the world famous rocking-horse manufacturers based in Bethersden, KenDavid sat on his first pony, Tom, a Shetland, when he was just three-years-old.
“I only rode for pleasure. William was much, much better than me. If I was riding some mad pony and it threw me off half-way up a field, I would say, I’ve had enough. William wouldn’t. He’d be determined to get back on again. He was the real rider. I was just the groom.

“I can remember going to shows with William in the old days. We’d go all over the place in some broken-down Luton van. In winter, it would be so cold there would be blocks of ice inside the van. Even the teapot would be frozen.”

When David left school he went to work for Stevenson Brothers, the world famous rocking-horse manufacturers based in Bethersden, Kent. His first job was sweeping the floor. It was while he was at Stevenson’s and studying for his City and Guilds in cabinet making and wood machining that he first thought of starting a crematorium. He started visiting other crematoria to see how they operated and the services they provided.

Cherry Tree Pet and Equine Crematorium, he launched, in 1998 on a 13-acre site at High Halden, Ashford. His own horses, he stables and grazes on the same site.

Cherry Tree Pet and Equine Crematorium“Because I knew what other crematoria were and were not doing, I knew from the beginning exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted to provide a caring, dignified, personal service to horse and pet owners. That is something I am really passionate about. I wanted to assure them that their animals would be treated with the utmost respect and dignity with which we would treat our own pets.”

His first client was a little girl with a pony.
Today he is responsible for handling over 1,000 pets a year. They range from pet rats, goldfish and lizards to lions and rhinos from local zoos. Most are dogs and cats. Next come horses and ponies. Most of them are ordinary horses and ponies owned by ordinary riders. But there are exceptions.They were responsible for Sir Barnaby, the horse which helped establish Pippa as one of the leading event riders in the country. They have also handled many famous racehorses including one Grand National winner.

Most of them die naturally or are put down. Others are involved in different types of accidents. Riding accidents. Road accidents. Some are found on rubbish dumps. Others are fished out of the river. A few have been subjected to cruelty or have been starved to death.

Cherry Tree CrematoriumBut whether David and his three-man staff are dealing with a horse like Sir Barnaby or a world famous race horse, they all receive the same personal care and attention. They arrive at Cherry Tree Crematorium by one of their specially adapted horseboxes. From the horsebox, they are transferred to a specially designed and built cremator, measuring six-foot in diameter and capable of reaching temperatures of 950-degrees Centigrade. For the average size horse the process takes about seven hours.

David is strict about the whole cremation process.
“There are so many stories about crematoria,” he says, “It’s unbelievable. People say animals are stockpiled until there are enough to fill an oven. Others say when they are processed altogether, they share the ashes out in proportion to the size of the animals involved. They say the ashes they give you are not from your own animal but from a mixture of animals.

“Here we handle every horse the way I would like my horses handled. If they want their horse cremated with its favourite blanket or rug or whatever, we do it. Some people want the shoes back, we give them the shoes back. Some people even want the hooves back as well. We give them the hooves back.”

David is also very strict about the ashes.
“After every process, we clean the cremator out. We have special attachment to help us do this. We then put the ash into separate caskets. An average size horse will generate about 15 -20 kilos of ashes. This goes into a casket 18 inches long x 10 inches high x 10 inches wide. Most caskets are oak veneer. But we’re getting more and more requests for wicker scatter baskets.”

Different people do different things with the ashes.

Some people keep them in the casket. On the mantelpiece. On a shelf in the tack room. In a corner of the stable yard. Others scatter them over the paddock where the horse was kept. On a racecourse if the horse was a racehorse. Along a favourite ride if it was an ordinary horse. Some people still bury the ashes. ..
Says David, “People react in different ways when the time comes to say Good-bye. Some are calm and quiet. Some breakdown. Some are literally hysterical.”

But, however, they react at the time, everybody is united on one thing: their gratitude and thanks to David Funnell and everybody at Cherry Tree Pet and Equine Crematorium for the service and the understanding they receive at a difficult time.

But, however, they react at the time, everybody is united on one thing: their gratitude and thanks to David Funnell and everybody at Cherry Tree Pet and Equine Crematorium for the service and the understanding they receive at a difficult time.

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