Lawmakers introduce legislation regulating pet cremation after local scandal

Pennsylvania legislators introduced identical bills in the state House and Senate that would regulate animal cremation services after a scandal involving a local funeral director.

Patrick Vereb, 70, of Hazelwood was charged in April by the state Attorney General’s Office with taking money for pet cremations but instead disposing of the animals in landfills.

He also is accused of giving customers ashes that weren’t from their pets’ remains, according to authorities.

Vereb is charged with theft by deception, accused of receiving more than $650,000 for cremation services he allegedly never rendered, but he faces no charges for the treatment of the dead animals.

State investigators say they’ve identified at least 6,500 victims in the case.

Sen. Nick Pisciottano, D-West Mifflin, said he and other lawmakers built the bill — called the Companion Animal Cremation Consumer Protection Act — to make sure something like the crimes alleged against Vereb cannot happen again.

The bill would require cremation providers or referring entities such as veterinarians to inform pet owners of their rights and provide a written, detailed description of the cremation services available to them.

Cremation providers and referring entities also would be required to provide written certification that the services performed were in accordance with that description, creating a “chain of custody” for returned remains. Providers would have to keep these records for at least five years after rendering services.

The Attorney General’s Office, which Pisciottano said provided input during the bill’s creation, would be able to enforce fines of $1,000 to $2,500 per violation.

The state Board of Funeral Directors would be able to suspend or revoke funeral director licenses for violations.

The bill, Pisciottano said, would “give teeth” to the AG to punish potential bad actors in the future.

Pisciottano said the bill — sponsored by him; Camera Bartolotta, R-Washington; and more than half a dozen others in the Senate — is “very bipartisan with a broad base of support.”

Though many Pennsylvania voters might not have positive views of elected officials, Pisciottano said, the bill shows legislators can move quickly in response to popular demand.

“I think it shows that we can be responsible to practices that are patently unfair,” he said.

Bartolotta said the love of pets is not a divisive issue. After Vereb was charged, she said, she “held her breath” until she verified the ashes of her own recently deceased pets were truly theirs.

The bill, she said, places “meat on the bone” to hold unscrupulous providers responsible for more than just fraud.

“I really appreciate that this is an effort across the aisle, across the building to do the right thing and protect our constituents,” she said.

In the House, Rep. Brandon Markosek, D-Monroeville, is one of the sponsors. He said it would “ensure that funeral homes truly treat pet remains with dignity.”

“Pet owners deserve consumer protection as they are coping with the loss of their companions,” Markosek said in a statement.

Pisciottano said he believes the language of the bill is “pretty air tight,” though colleagues might still make minor tweaks.

The senator said he’s hopeful the bill will make it out of one of the chambers by the end of the year to be passed and signed in 2026.