If a New York business offers to dispose of pet remains through alkaline hydrolysis (a chemical 'flameless cremation' process), does it need a pet-cemetery or pet-crematorium license under General Business Law Article 35-C?

Plain-English summary

Alkaline hydrolysis is a chemical process that breaks down an organism's remains using heated alkaline solution. The result is a sterile liquid effluent and dry bone fragments that can be processed into ash similar to cremated remains. The process emerged in the 1990s and started becoming commercially available for pet remains as a more environmentally friendly alternative to flame cremation. The Department of State asked the AG: when an entity offers pet alkaline hydrolysis for a fee, does it need a license under Article 35-C?

The AG said yes, and went a step further: the entity can be licensed as a pet crematorium specifically.

The licensure analysis. Section 750-b requires a license to "engage for a fee in the business of operating a pet cemetery or pet crematorium." Section 750-a(3) defines that activity as holding oneself out, "by any means or method, to dispose of pet remains by earth burial, entombment, inurnment, cremation or other means." The "other means" catch-all is broad. The Legislature listed specific traditional methods (earth burial, entombment, inurnment, cremation), then added "or other means", a textual signal that the list isn't exhaustive. The AG read that signal as covering disposal methods not yet known when Article 35-C was enacted in 1992.

The legislative purpose backs the result. Article 35-C was enacted in 1992 in response to a notorious pet cemetery scandal in 1991 where the operator conducted mass cremations and returned mixed-up ashes to grieving owners who had paid for individual cremations. The licensure scheme was designed to "prevent grieving pet owners from experiencing further any emotional pain or financial manipulation" (§ 750). Owners using alkaline hydrolysis are just as vulnerable to those harms, so they belong inside the protective regime, not outside it.

The pet-crematorium category. Although traditional cremation involves heat and flame, Article 35-C does not define "cremation." By contrast, Public Health Law § 4201(1)(a) and Not-for-Profit Corporation Law § 1502(h) (governing human remains) do define cremation to require heat and flame, and 19 N.Y.C.R.R. § 203.1(a) follows suit. But those definitions apply only to human remains. For pets, the statutory silence plus the broad "other means" language supports a more flexible reading. Alkaline hydrolysis is sometimes called "flameless cremation" or "hydro cremation"; it produces ash-like remains and serves the same memorial function. The AG concluded that licensing it as a pet crematorium fits the statutory framework.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 2015. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here.

New York later authorized alkaline hydrolysis for human remains by statute, which has shifted the landscape for both human and pet disposal services. Anyone evaluating a current license question should consult the latest General Business Law Article 35-C, Public Health Law, and Department of State licensing guidance.

Historical context

What the opinion meant for the pet-disposal industry

Operators offering alkaline hydrolysis for pet remains needed a Department of State license, with all the consumer-protection requirements (recordkeeping, individual-versus-group designations, return-of-ashes commitments) that come with it. The opinion aligned the regulatory treatment of new and old disposal methods.

What the opinion meant for grieving pet owners

Owners selecting alkaline hydrolysis got the same protections as owners selecting flame cremation: a licensed operator, statutory consumer-protection oversight, and the option to recover the underlying remedies if the operator misused the process or substituted ashes.

Why the cremation/heat-and-flame distinction was significant

Other states had been litigating whether alkaline hydrolysis could be called cremation for human remains, with mixed results turning on whether the relevant statute defined cremation to require heat and flame. New York's pet-cremation statute didn't carry that definitional baggage. The AG took advantage of the silence to give "cremation" the more functional meaning, capturing alkaline hydrolysis without requiring legislative amendment.

Common questions

Q: What is alkaline hydrolysis?
A: A chemical process that uses heated alkaline solution to dissolve soft tissue, leaving sterile liquid effluent and bone fragments. The bones can be processed into a powder similar to cremated remains. The environmental footprint is lower than flame cremation: no greenhouse gas emissions from combustion, less energy use.

Q: Why is licensing required?
A: To prevent the kinds of consumer-protection failures that prompted the 1992 enactment of Article 35-C. Without licensing, an operator can mishandle remains, mix ashes, or fail to return what families paid for, with limited recourse for the family.

Q: Does this opinion authorize alkaline hydrolysis for human remains?
A: No. The opinion is specific to pet remains. Human-remains cremation is governed by separate statutes (Public Health Law § 4201, Not-for-Profit Corporation Law § 1502(h), 19 N.Y.C.R.R. § 203.1(a)) that define cremation to require heat and flame, which alkaline hydrolysis doesn't satisfy. Authorizing alkaline hydrolysis for human remains required separate legislation.

Q: Why "other means" rather than a definition of cremation?
A: The Legislature in 1992 wrote a broad licensing trigger because it was responding to a specific abuse pattern (consumer fraud) and wanted comprehensive coverage. Listing every conceivable disposal method risked under-inclusion as new technologies emerged; a clean catch-all ("other means") works regardless.

Q: Could a non-profit operate a pet alkaline hydrolysis service without a license?
A: No. Section 750-a(1)'s definition of "person" includes entities. The statute applies to any entity offering disposal for a fee. The licensing requirement turns on the activity, not the operator's tax status.

Background and statutory framework

Article 35-C of the General Business Law was enacted in 1992 (L. 1992, ch. 526) in response to a notorious 1991 pet-cemetery scandal. The legislative findings in § 750 emphasize protecting grieving pet owners from emotional pain and financial manipulation. Section 750-b requires a Department of State license for any "person" engaging for a fee in the business of operating a pet cemetery or pet crematorium. Section 750-a(3) defines the licensed activity broadly: holding oneself out, "by any means or method, to dispose of pet remains by earth burial, entombment, inurnment, cremation or other means." Section 750-a(1) defines "person" to include entities.

For human remains, separate definitional statutes specify the meaning of cremation: Public Health Law § 4201(1)(a) and Not-for-Profit Corporation Law § 1502(h) both define cremation as a process involving heat and flame. The implementing regulation 19 N.Y.C.R.R. § 203.1(a) tracks the statutory definition. None of these provisions apply to pet remains, leaving the pet-cremation term undefined and open to functional interpretation.

The AG's reading combines two interpretive moves: (a) "other means" in § 750-a(3) captures novel disposal methods that didn't exist when the statute was written, and (b) "cremation" in the same provision is read functionally (a process producing ash-like remains for memorial use) rather than mechanically (a process involving heat and flame). The second move accommodates alkaline hydrolysis within the existing pet-crematorium licensure category.

Citations and references

Statutes:
- N.Y. General Business Law Article 35-C; § 750 (findings); § 750-a(1) (definitions); § 750-a(3) (engaging in business definition); § 750-b (license requirement)
- N.Y. Public Health Law § 4201(1)(a) (human cremation; not applicable)
- N.Y. Not-for-Profit Corporation Law § 1502(h) (human cremation; not applicable)
- 19 N.Y.C.R.R. § 203.1(a) (human cremation regulations)

Source

• Landing page: https://ag.ny.gov/libraries-documents/opinions/opinions-year
• Original PDF: https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/opinions/2015-f1_pw.pdf

Original opinion text

General Business Law §§ 750, 750-a(1), 750-a(3), 750-b, Article 35-C; Public Health Law §4201(1)(a); Not-For-Profit Corporation Law § 1502(h); New York Code, Rules And Regulations 19, § 203.1(a)

Alkaline hydrolysis is a permissible means of disposal of pet remains. An entity offering pet disposal by alkaline hydrolysis for a fee must be licensed under General Business Law Article 35-C and such an entity can be licensed as a pet crematorium.

August 4, 2015

Linda M. Baldwin
General Counsel
New York Department of State
One Commerce Plaza
99 Washington Avenue
Albany, New York 12231-0001

Formal Opinion
No. 2015-F1

Dear Ms. Baldwin:

You have requested an opinion relating to the Secretary of State's authority under General Business Law Article 35-C, which governs the operation of pet cemeteries and pet crematoriums. Specifically, you have asked whether an entity that offers for a fee to dispose of pet remains through the process of alkaline hydrolysis comes within the licensure requirement of Article 35-C. Alkaline hydrolysis is a chemical method of reducing an organism's remains to liquid and bone; processing the bone results in a sterile, dry ash, similar to that yielded from cremation by incineration. The process of alkaline hydrolysis for disposal of remains first developed in the 1990s, but only recently is becoming available more widely as an environmentally-friendly alternative to the traditional methods of disposing of remains through burial or incineration. As explained below, we are of the opinion that an entity that offers for a fee to dispose of pet remains through alkaline hydrolysis must obtain a license under Article 35-C from the Secretary of State.

Under Article 35-C, "no person shall engage for a fee in the business of operating a pet cemetery or pet crematorium" without a license. General Business Law § 750-b. And the phrase, "to engage for a fee in the business of operating a pet cemetery or pet crematorium" is defined to refer to a person who holds him- or herself out as being able, "by any means or method, to dispose of pet remains by earth burial, entombment, inurnment, cremation or other means." General Business Law § 750-a(3) (emphasis added). Thus an entity (which is included in the statutory definition of "person," General Business Law § 750-a(1)) that offers for a fee to dispose of pet remains through alkaline hydrolysis is "engaging in the business of operating a pet cemetery or pet crematorium" and must be licensed.

To be sure, such an entity does not operate what is commonly understood to be a cemetery or a crematorium. But the activity for which a license is required under Article 35-C is defined sufficiently broadly to encompass means of disposing of pet remains beyond those historically available. Indeed, by listing certain methods of disposing of pet remains specific to a cemetery (earth burial, entombment, inurnment) and to a typical crematorium (cremation) and then including in the statutory language the phrase "other means," the Legislature signaled its intent not only that the list of means not be exclusive but also that the list of means not be limited to those traditionally available through cemeteries and crematoriums. And in 1992, when Article 35-C was enacted, alkaline hydrolysis, if available at all, certainly was not a well-known means of disposing of animal tissue. Within that context, the absence of alkaline hydrolysis from the statutorily-listed methods of disposal should not be read to reflect a legislative determination either that it is an impermissible method of pet remains disposal or that it need not be regulated.

Moreover, the conclusion that an entity offering for a fee disposal of pet remains through alkaline hydrolysis must be licensed by the Department of State serves the intent underlying the enactment of Article 35-C. Article 35-C was the legislative response to abuses, including consumer fraud, discovered at a pet cemetery in 1991. Among other violations, the cemetery owners conducted mass cremations and returned a portion of the resulting ashes to the grieving pet owners instead of performing the contracted-for individual pet cremations, which would have allowed the return of an individual pet's ashes to its owner. Memorandum from James N. Baldwin, Executive Deputy Secretary of State, to Elizabeth D. Moore, Counsel to the Governor (Jul. 9, 1992), reprinted in Bill Jacket for ch. 526 (1992), at 24-25. As a result of this and other abuses, Article 35-C was enacted to establish a scheme of licensing and inspection of entities engaging in the pet remains disposal business, "to prevent grieving pet owners from experiencing further any emotional pain or financial manipulation." General Business Law § 750. Grieving pet owners seeking to handle the remains of their pets through alkaline hydrolysis are as likely to be vulnerable to the abuses Article 35-C was enacted to prevent as are those seeking disposal through more conventional methods. In fact, the entity currently seeking to offer pet remains disposal through alkaline hydrolysis plans to commit to returning a pet's ashes to its owner.

For these reasons, we are of the opinion that alkaline hydrolysis is a means of disposal of pet remains that comes within the statutory definition of "engag[ing] for a fee in the business of operating a pet cemetery or pet crematorium," and, consequently, that an entity offering alkaline hydrolysis for a fee must be licensed under Article 35-C.

Further, in our opinion, an entity wanting to offer disposal of pet remains through alkaline hydrolysis reasonably can be licensed as a pet crematorium under Article 35-C. Although cremation typically is understood to require heat and flame, Article 35-C itself does not contain any definition of "cremation." In contrast, statutes governing cremation of human remains specify the meaning of "cremation," and define it to require heat and flame. Public Health Law § 4201(1)(a); Not-for-Profit Corporation Law § 1502(h); see also 19 N.Y.C.R.R. § 203.1(a). But these definitions specifically relate to human remains and thus need not apply to pet cremation. And the expansive definition of "engag[ing] for a fee in the business of operating a pet cemetery or pet crematorium," for which a license is required, argues against a limited interpretation of "cremation" in this context. Indeed, perhaps because the remains after the process resemble the ash remaining after incineration, alkaline hydrolysis is sometimes called flameless or hydro cremation.

Very truly yours,

ERIC T. SCHNEIDERMAN
Attorney General