Beloved family pets can now be immortalised after they die with bereaved owners turning them into PEARLS
- Japanese cosmetics firm WBE uses bone fragments and turns them into pearls
- The Nagasaki-based firm can produce a pearl in a year and for a cost of £3,300
- Intended to offer a unique way of preserving the memory of a beloved pet
People mourning the loss of a pet can now have their remains turned into a pearl necklace to immortalise their beloved companion.
Japanese cosmetics firm WBE, based in Nagasaki, has developed a novel method to grow a cultured pearl from a bone fragment.
It takes a year of slow growth to fully develop and costs a total of £3,300.
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Japanese cosmetics firm WBE, based in Nagasaki, has developed a novel method to grow a cultured pearl from a dog’s bone fragment (stock)
‘If we can soothe the grief of the owners who have lost their pets, we will be glad,’ Tomoe Masuda, head of the cosmetics company WBE, told Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun.
There are many ways to immortalise a pet, with some owners even cloning their deceased animals.
A facility in Seoul, South Korea offers the ability to clone a dog for a total of £77,000 on a ‘no dog-no fee’ basis.
Other bizarre burial rituals have spread to humans, with some people now opting to be turned into a gemstone or a plant.
Some firms are also offering the ability to have remains scattered in space.
Commercial culturing of pearls is nothing new to Japan, where the method was first developed a century ago.
The Nagasaki-based firm can produce a pearl in a year and for a cost of £3,300 and says it is intended to offer a unique way of preserving the memory of a beloved pet (stock)
But the emergence of technology allowing a pet to be turned into a pearl for a fraction of the cost of other burial rituals could see more owners immortalise their animal companions.
It was a scheme spearheaded by Yoshiki Matsushita, a professor at Nagasaki University’s graduate school of fisheries and environmental sciences, who was left devastated when his own dog passed away.
The grief left from the departure of ten-year old dog, a jack Russel named Ran, inspired the project.
A bone fragment from the pet is included in a ball of resin, as it is less likely to be rejected by the oyster.
These are then slowly cared for by the oyster until it is sufficiently large enough to be used as jewellery.
‘Each pearl has its own character, as my dog Ran had his own character. He has become a unique treasure,’ he said.
