Legally burying your pet in Belarus is only possible in an animal burial ground. Violating the law seems more morally acceptable to many

As stated in the ONT TV channel's report,

the only free and fully legal burial option remains Bekari bio-thermal pits, known as animal burial grounds. These are wells about ten meters deep, where the carcasses of farm animals, wild beasts, and deceased dogs or cats are dumped together. After filling, such an object is hermetically sealed for ten years.

Due to the specifics of animal burial grounds, most owners choose to bury their pets the old-fashioned way — in the nearest forest belt, at a dacha, or in spontaneous pet cemeteries.

In such unofficial necropolises, owners erect fences, marble monuments, and even crosses. However, the addresses of these places are not advertised online, as communal services will liquidate them with bulldozers if discovered.

For illegal burial, an administrative fine of up to 30 basic units is предусмотрено — this is 1350 rubles for 2026.

Vadim Chistyakov, the chief veterinary doctor of the Minsk City Veterinary Station, emphasizes that the prohibition is due to epidemiological danger. The most serious threat remains rabies, which cannot be diagnosed during life — the diagnosis is only made posthumously in a laboratory. When a body decomposes, putrefaction products enter sewage, reservoirs, and wells. In addition, shallow graves are often dug up by wild animals or stray dogs, which provokes the spread of infections.

An ecological and humane alternative is cremation — general or individual, where the ashes are given to the owner in a special urn. However, there are only a few specialized crematoria in the country, and most offers online belong to intermediaries.

Enterprises face strict requirements for sanitary protection zones. Because of this, it is impossible to place ovens in Minsk: the only metropolitan crematorium operates in the Minsk district. As Anastasia Brazovskaya, deputy director of a ritual company, said, transportation over a distance of 50 kilometers one way significantly increases costs.

Demand varies from two to ten calls per day. The organization serves not only private clients and metropolitan clinics (including the state-owned "Fauna Goroda" and the city veterinary station) but also accepts applications from regions — Brest, Grodno, Vitebsk, Soligorsk, Molodechno, and even Russian Smolensk.

For many owners, this is the only way to avoid unauthorized burial. Elena Marigerevskaya, a resident of Zaslavl, specifically brought the body of her seventeen-year-old cat to Minsk for individual cremation, noting that she learned about the existence of such a service only on the morning of the farewell day.

In the regions, the situation is even more limited. In the entire Vitebsk region, only one facility is operating, opened a year ago at the Polotsk District Veterinary Station. During this time, about a hundred applications have been received there. Sergey Bulyka, the station director, reported that when the oven is fully loaded with 100 kilograms, about 60 liters of diesel fuel are consumed, which minimizes profit, making cremation more of a social project.

Law without instructions

The law "On Responsible Treatment of Animals," adopted a year and a half ago, legally recognized the presence of feelings in pets and enshrined norms of a dignified life, but completely bypassed the issue of their burial.

State bodies shift responsibility to each other: housing and communal services enterprises declare non-compliance with their profile, the Department of Veterinary Supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food is responsible exclusively for controlling sanitary rules, and land allocation issues are redirected to local executive committees.

Meanwhile, in neighboring Russia, official animal cemeteries have long been established in Moscow and St. Petersburg. In Belarus, however, there are no such sites.

Olga Karpova, chairperson of the board of the charitable association "Zooshanсe," emphasizes that the law remains symbolic: until the state offers accessible mechanisms for rapid cremation or special territories, citizens will be forced to violate norms.

Former MP Maria Vasilevich noted that during the discussion of the bill, the public's request for official burials was recorded, but the implementation mechanism remains open, so at an intermediate stage, the authorities should at least explain safe operating rules to people.

According to official data, over 150,000 pets are registered in the country, but their actual number is much higher: in Minsk alone, every third family has pets, which amounts to over half a million individuals. 

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