The owner of a Pittsburgh pet mortuary is accused of victimizing thousands of grieving customers by carelessly dumping their deceased pets in landfills or giving them the ashes of other animals, authorities said.
Patrick Roy Vereb, 70, the owner of Vereb Funeral Home and Eternity Pet Memorial, was charged with deceptive business practices and theft by deception "for failing to provide these promised services, and failing to return the proper ashes to their rightful pet owners," Pennsylvania state prosecutors said Monday.
Vereb's "abhorrent conduct regarding his treatment of thousands of pets" led prosecutors to set up a portal on the front page of the state Attorney General's Office website looking for more possible victims, Attorney General Dave Sunday Jr. said.
"I know that this may be upsetting to hear," Sunday said, "but I feel it's important that we notify the community and the many victims [that] between 2021 and 2024 Mr. Vereb neglected his duty of care by deliberately and repeatedly betraying his customers who wanted a dignified service for their beloved dog or cat."
Prosecutors claim they've identified more than 6,500 victims.
"Instead of proper cremations, burials and returns of ashes to consumers, he took thousands of animals to a landfill for disposal," Sunday said. "Thousands of consumers who paid for and expected their pets' ashes received ashes from other unknown animals."
It was Vereb's own employees who started suspecting wrongdoing in late July when the business appeared to be taking in "far more numbers of animals than what he was cremating," according to a criminal complaint.
He eventually admitted fooling customers to investigators, authorities said.
"Vereb reluctantly agreed [in an interview with investigators] that pet owners were not always getting their specific pets' actual ashes back," the court document said.
"Vereb admitted that if he didn't have the ashes for a pet, he gave the owners ashes from another animal to 'make them feel good for the day, if nothing else.' And he admitted to using 'leftover' ashes of other pets to pass off as those of the pets who were not cremated," it said.
And sometimes, customers opted to have their animals buried in a "common" grave alongside other pets. But those pets were often dumped in the garbage, the complaint said.
"When asked where he buries the 'commons,' Vereb admitted to not using these pet cemeteries 'in a while,' and that he instead dumped the animals in a landfill," according to the complaint.
"Vereb admitted he lied to the pet owners and told them their pets were buried with other animals," it said.
Vereb didn't have to post a bond, and he is free until his next scheduled court appearance May 9, a spokesperson for the attorney general’s office said Tuesday.
Vereb couldn't immediately be reached for comment Tuesday through publicly listed landlines, cellphone numbers and email addresses.
A female voice picked up one of the phone numbers connected to Vereb, said "meow," and hung up.
