Preserving your pet from Holladay: the first hours and beyond
By our estimate, about 11,500 households in Holladay have a dog or cat. Only a small share of families ever consider preservation, so if you're one of them, here's how to freeze your pet in time and what comes next.
- What to tell your vet or emergency clinic
- Freezer and power-cut backup plans
- Practitioners chosen by portfolio, not postcode
Holladay, Utah
Getting your pet frozen and to a specialist from Holladay
Grief for a companion can feel surprisingly heavy, and it can resurface on birthdays or during familiar strolls through the neighborhood. Free pet-loss hotlines staffed by veterinary students and online support groups are available to anyone. If it isn't easing after several weeks, booking time with a therapist who treats animal bereavement as real loss makes sense, and plenty of Salt Lake County therapists do.
With its tree-lined streets and longtime residents, Holladay has a neighborly feel, and friends may stop by with a card or a casserole after a loss. A simple goodbye in the living room, a favorite toy nearby, a lit candle and some shared memories, can help the whole household. Children often cope better when invited to write a note or choose a photo.
Small towns like Holladay often have a taxidermist who does deer and turkeys each season. They may be willing to freeze your pet for you, or to point you to someone who does pets, and that can be a real help. Just remember that mounting a buck and recreating your cat's face are different skills, so look at their pet work before you commit.
About 31,162 people live in Holladay, which makes it the 37th-largest of the 52 Utah communities we cover. The nearest larger centre is Salt Lake City, about 8 miles (13 km) away, which is where some providers serving Holladay are based.
If you want to compare providers, look at Millcreek (2 miles, a larger centre), Cottonwood Heights (3 miles) and Murray (3 miles). Distance matters because pickup fees and the time until the ashes come back both grow with the drive.
Our estimate
11,500
How many dog- or cat-owning households Holladay has (estimate)
How we calculated this
31,162 ÷ 2.5 = 12,465 households; × 53% (dog) + 39% (cat) = 11,500. Multi-pet homes count once.
Our estimate
960
Estimated dog and cat losses in Holladay each year
How we calculated this
11,500 dog/cat-owning homes ÷ average lifespan (dog: 12.69 yrs + cat: 11.18 yrs) ≈ 960 a year. A floor, not a ceiling.
53%[1]
53% of US households own a dog, which is about 71 million households.
12.69 years[2]
US dogs have an average life expectancy at birth of 12.69 years.
39%[3]
39% of US households own a cat, which is about 53 million households.
11.18 years[4]
US cats seen at Banfield hospitals have an average life expectancy at birth of 11.18 years.
The numbers above come from American Pet Products Association (APPA) 2025 State of the Industry and Montoya et al. 2023, Frontiers in Veterinary Science, if you'd like to read the original sources.
What local cremation habits mean for your request
Cremation covers only around 46.1%[5] of funerals in Utah, and pets are often buried on family land. If you're preserving just part of your pet, the rest can usually go into the ground, which gives you a grave to visit and a keepsake indoors. Ask the practitioner whether they can return the remaining body frozen and sealed, or whether they would arrange cremation instead.
That Utah rate is a human one, published by NFDA 2024 Cremation & Burial Report state projections (via Occasional Sage) (2024). We quote it for Holladay only as a pointer to how families here already think about cremation.
Keeping your pet frozen through Holladay's weather
Holladay asks a lot of a chest freezer: heat in July, then cold snaps in January, February and December. Freezers kept in unheated garages can struggle at both ends, and some models don't run properly when the room itself drops well below freezing. If your pet is being held in a garage freezer, keep a thermometer inside and check it every day.
Shipping a frozen pet from Holladay changes with the season. In July, heat on loading docks is the worry, so use plenty of dry ice and a thick cooler. In January, February and December, snow delays are more likely than thawing. Whatever the month, send early in the week and ask the practitioner to confirm when your pet has arrived and gone into their freezer.
Prices by pet size, and what adds to them
Waiting is part of the cost. Freeze-drying takes three to six months for small pets and seven or more for large dogs[6], and both freeze-drying and taxidermy often run 6–12 months[7]. One studio offers faster turnaround of six to eight weeks for 50% more[8]. A rush fee can make sense, but a frozen pet can safely wait, so it's rarely necessary.
Rather than repeat the price table on every city page, we keep one for Utah: Utah costs. What each service includes is on the services page.
Free tool
Freeze-dry & taxidermy cost estimator
Estimate cost and waiting time for freeze-drying or taxidermy by size and pose.
When the rules in Utah come into play
Most of the paperwork you'll sign for preservation is a contract, not a permit. Read what it says about the deposit, storage fees if you can't collect on time, and what happens to your pet if the studio closes or the practitioner falls ill. Keep a copy with your pet's photos. For whatever won't be kept, the rules for Utah below apply.
To find your county or city office in Utah, start with the official Utah local government directory.
Home burial and scattering are governed at the Utah level first; our Utah rules summary has the detail. Then check whether Holladay or your HOA adds anything.
What to do first if you might preserve your pet
- Stop the clock. Warmth is the enemy here; the first thing to do is get your pet down onto the coolest hard floor you have.
- Call ahead to your vet or an emergency clinic if you don't have freezer space, and ask them to hold your pet frozen rather than refrigerated.
- Set aside the collar, tags and a favorite blanket. Don't cut or trim the coat yet; the practitioner can tell you where a keepsake lock can safely come from.
- Bag and freeze your pet within a few hours, double-wrapped, in a natural resting pose.
- Decide on the method: preserving the whole pet by freeze-drying, conventional taxidermy, or keeping just one part and cremating the remainder.
- Agree everything in writing, covering what the practitioner does if they find damage after thawing.
Once the finished piece is home in Holladay
Some Holladay families plan a backyard remembrance when fall color spreads across the slopes of Mount Olympus, or in spring as the gardens come back to life. Ashes stored in a sealed container are stable indefinitely, so there's no pressure to gather quickly. Choose a time that lets the people who cared for your pet be there, including those who have to travel in.
try the free planning tools, go deeper with the guides or catch up on recent articles, Our services overview lays out every option side by side, or see how other readers answered in our polls. You can also browse every city in the United States. Nearby, we also cover St. George, West Jordan, Salt Lake City and Provo, and every city in Utah.
Reader polls
What would you choose?
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Questions people ask
Where are the providers that serve Holladay actually based?
Some are local, and some run from Salt Lake City, about 8 miles away. That is normal for a town this size. What matters is the collection time they quote for Holladay and whether the drive is priced into the total, so ask both up front.
How many pet owners live in Holladay?
By our estimate, about 11,500 households in Holladay have at least one dog or cat, and around 960 are lost each year. We calculate this from the city's population of about 31,162, the average household size and national ownership and lifespan figures, so treat it as a floor rather than an exact count.
When is the hardest time of year to arrange a burial in Holladay?
January, February and December: average lows are below freezing then, and frozen ground makes a home grave slow or impossible until it thaws. The other pressure point is July, when highs around 94°F mean a body needs cooling and collecting quickly.
Can a provider from a neighbouring town collect from Holladay?
Usually yes. Millcreek is about 2 miles away, Cottonwood Heights is about 3 miles away and Murray is about 3 miles away, all inside a normal collection radius. Get the mileage written into the quote so there is no surprise on the day.
How do I look after a preserved pet at home?
Protect it from sunlight, damp and insects. Direct sun fades fur, humid air can soften freeze-dried tissue and moths or carpet beetles can damage fur over time. Keep the piece in a dry room away from bathrooms and heating vents, dust it with a soft makeup brush or a hair dryer on cool, and never wash it. A glass case helps with all three.
Does the euthanasia injection affect preservation?
Generally, no. Practitioners routinely work on pets who were put to sleep. What matters far more is what happens next: how much fur was clipped, whether your pet was kept cool and how soon they were frozen. Mention any shaved patches or bandaged areas when you describe your pet, so the practitioner knows what to expect when your pet thaws.
Sources and our estimates
- [1] 53% of US households own a dog, which is about 71 million households. American Pet Products Association (APPA) 2025 State of the Industry, 2025.
- [2] US dogs have an average life expectancy at birth of 12.69 years. Montoya et al. 2023, Frontiers in Veterinary Science - Banfield Pet Hospital life expectancy tables (13.3 million dogs, 2.4 million cats, 2013-2019), 2023.
- [3] 39% of US households own a cat, which is about 53 million households. American Pet Products Association (APPA) 2025 State of the Industry, 2025.
- [4] US cats seen at Banfield hospitals have an average life expectancy at birth of 11.18 years. Montoya et al. 2023, Frontiers in Veterinary Science - Banfield Pet Hospital life expectancy tables (13.3 million dogs, 2.4 million cats, 2013-2019), 2023.
- [5] The NFDA projected Utah's cremation rate at 46.1% for 2024. NFDA 2024 Cremation & Burial Report state projections (via Occasional Sage), 2024.
- [6] Freeze-dry preservation takes 3–6 months for small pets, 7+ months for large dogs and up to a year for very large animals. Astute Analytica via GlobeNewswire — Global Pet Preservation Services Market to Hit USD 112.7 Million by 2032 (Apr 2, 2024), 2024.
- [7] Both traditional taxidermy and freeze-drying typically take 6–12 months, sometimes longer. Memorials.com – Pet Taxidermy Guide, 2025.
- [8] Paying 50% extra for VIP service cuts freeze-dry turnaround to 6–8 weeks at Animal Family Pet Preservation. Animal Family Pet Preservation – Pricing, 2026.
- [9] Freeze-drying a pet costs about 6 times as much as an average cremation. Our estimate: USD 1,500 (midpoint of USD 1,000–2,000) / USD 250. How we calculate.
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