the first public cemetery for dogs and cats

Spain is a country of pets. According to the first official census of pets, published a few weeks ago by the Government, 15.2 million live in our country, most of them dogs and cats. With these figures we better understand the pull of the ‘Pet Economy’ and that it becomes less and less rare to find services that until not so long ago They were almost unimaginable, like public cemeteries only for animals. The first opened in June 2024, in Malaga, and its last balance suggests that the service is increasingly in demand.

Since 2024 it has already provided almost 750 services.

June 24, 2024. That was the day that Málaga inaugurated its pet cemetery, a center managed by the City Council through the municipal company Parcemasa and which is located in the Málaga Cemetery Park (San Gabriel). In Spain there are other places designed for cremating, burying and saying goodbye to pets, but as they insisted in 2024 from Malaga yours has something special: it is the first of its kind of public and municipal nature.

“This is a pioneering facility in Spain, since the rest of the similar facilities in other cities are private,” underlined in 2024 the City Council after remembering that the cemetery required an investment of almost 1.17 million of euros. The complex is made up of a 1,000 square meter building, a crematorium capable of holding animals weighing up to 200 kilos, gardens for depositing urns with ashes and another space for tombs.

The figure: 748 services. In 2024, the cemetery made headlines for its pioneering nature. Today it is because of its volume of activity. On Sunday, coinciding with the second anniversary of the complex, the City Council launched a statement with the balance of its first 24 months of activity. And the data is surprising.

Since 2024, the cemetery has provided 748 serviceswhich means a little more than one a day. In total Parcemasa has managed 673 cremations, the burial of 65 pets and the farewell of ten animals that were cremated and placed in urns. The majority of pets that passed through the center were dogs (504) and cats (213), although it has also worked with birds, rodents and a turtle.

“Progressive increase”. Although the balance is curious, what is important is the trend. The City Council assures that it has perceived a “progressive increase” in the activity of the cemetery. In fact, only so far in 2026 has it registered 242 services provided either in the municipal facilities themselves or through the dozen and a half veterinary clinics in Malaga with which it collaborates.

The services offered also include the collection and transfer of deceased animals, celebration of farewell events or even the support of a psychological team. Their rates range from 40 euros from a basic cremation to more than 900 that the most expensive service costs: burying a large pet (more than 30 kilos) for three decades in ‘The park of memory’.

More than an anecdote. That the Malaga pet cemetery has managed more than 700 services in two years is hardly surprising. The first official census commissioned by the Government shows that in Spain there are more than 15.1 million animals of companionship, the vast majority being dogs (7.6 million) and cats (5.6 million). Andalusia, the most populated community in Spain, also leads the way in the number of pets, with around 3.3 million

A concept: pet-economy. We Spaniards not only have more and more pets. We also generally spend more money on their care. And that is generating considerable demand for services related to pet-economy. A recent report by EAE Business School estimates that in our country pets generate a business of 5.77 billion euros per year and drive a sector that is growing at 8.3%, generating tens of thousands of jobs.

With this data on the table, it is better understood that there are insurance companies and even venture capital funds that they start to get interested for animal care or that there are other cities in Spain interested in follow suit of Malaga and provide its own public cemeteries for dogs and cats.

Images | Malaga City Council

In Xataka |