Illinois Statutes Chapter 815. Business Transactions § 318/5. Definitions

§ 5. Definitions. For the purposes of this Act, unless the context indicates otherwise:

“Companion animal” or “animal” means a deceased animal that had a companion or pet relationship with an owner at the time of the animal's death.

“Provider of companion animal cremation services” or “provider” means a person, company, or other entity engaging in the business of cremating deceased companion animals in Illinois.

“Cremation remains” means the material remaining after the cremation of an animal, which may include ashes, skeletal remains, and other residue resulting from the incineration process, and may be pulverized or otherwise processed by the provider of cremation services.

“Individually partitioned cremation” means a cremation process in which either (i) only one companion animal at a time is cremated in the incinerator or (ii) more than one companion animal is cremated in the incinerator at the same time, but each of the animals is completely separated from the others by partitions during the cremation process; and in which the commingling of significant amounts of cremation remains from different animals is unlikely to occur.

“Communal cremation” means a cremation process in which companion animals are cremated together without effective partitions or separation during the cremation process, and in which the commingling of significant amounts of cremation remains from different animals is likely or certain to occur.

“Commingling of significant amounts of cremation remains from different animals” means that specific cremation remains cannot be attributed to a particular animal, or that the cremation remains attributed to one companion animal contain more than 1% by weight of cremation remains from one or more other companion animals. The presence, in the cremation remains of a companion animal, of the remains of any creature that was contained within the body of that animal at the time of cremation (including parasites, insects, and food or creatures eaten by that companion animal) does not constitute “commingling” for the purposes of this Act.

A person or business entity is deemed to refer animal owners or bring business to a provider “on a regular basis” if the person or entity (i) has an ongoing contractual or agency relationship with the provider relating to the cremation of companion animals, (ii) receives any compensation or consideration from the provider or animal owners relating to the cremation of companion animals by the provider, or (iii) refers or brings to the provider the business of more than 5 animal owners in an average month.