Shanghai's first registered pet funeral home has opened in Pudong New Area, offering local pet owners a way to memorialize their passed companions, local media reported Tuesday.

Although there are other services devoted to after-death pet care in the city, the Shanghai Pet Heaven Memorial Center was the first to register with the government, indicating a future for the nascent business.

"There is a huge demand behind the industry," said Ouyang Yunfei, a manager at the Shanghai Pet Heaven Memorial Center, which opened Friday. "More and more pet lovers want their pets taken care of after they die, rather than just having them thrown away. Until now, there hadn't been a licensed and certified service to cater to that need."

Shanghai Pet Heaven and its competitors offer pet cremation and memorial services, such as spreading a pet's ashes at sea or burying them under a fruit tree.

There are about 80,000 pet dogs registered in the city, though the actual number is likely far higher, the report said. The Shanghai Animal Harmless Disposal Center, the only place authorized to dispose of dead pets in the city, dealt with 6,000 pets of all kinds last year.

The unregistered Angelheart Pet Funeral Service cremates its customers' pets at an incinerator in Pudong New Area, said an employee surnamed Xu.

"We bought the incinerator ourselves," Xu told a Global Times reporter posing as a customer.

According to the business's website, pet owners can help prepare their pets for cremation.

Ouyang described the practice as unprofessional and dangerous because there is the potential for disease to spread from the animal's carcass.

Shanghai Pet Heaven only cremated pets at the Shanghai Animal Harmless Disposal Center and bars customers from participating.

"The disposal center mainly deals with farm livestock. Although veterinary clinics also send dead pets to the center, it is impossible for the owners to know what really happens to their pets. The clinics don't provide them with cremation documents," Ouyang told the Global Times.

He added that customers can choose to keep their pet's ashes if it is cremated by itself.