This Canadian Company Turns Your Pet’s Ashes or Fur Into Diamonds
Launched in summer 2025, Canada’s Ossu Diamonds grew from one pet owner’s search for a keepsake that could capture what his dog meant to him.
For most pet owners, calling an animal “family” is more than a figure of speech. An international survey of more than 16,000 dog and cat owners across eight countries, released in 2022 by the Human Animal Bond Research Institute and animal health company Zoetis, found that 95% considered their pet part of the family.
Anyone who has loved an animal knows this quiet truth: a pet can be one of the most significant relationships in a person's life.
Hinly Wong is one such pet parent. As his family’s senior dog, Dodo, grew older, he began searching for a tribute that felt worthy of what she meant to him.
“What’s worthy of the one who meant the world to you?” was the question he kept coming back to.
His search led him to an unexpected possibility: a diamond grown using carbon extracted from her fur.
An Unlikely Answer
Hinly thought the idea sounded crazy at first.
“I’d never heard of something like this before,” he says.
He learned more about the science, saw the process in action and even had one created for his own dog. The more he understood, the more the idea appealed to him. What began as an unfamiliar technology became a way to do something extraordinary with material from an animal he loved.
“It almost feels alive in a way,” he says of the finished diamond.
That discovery became Ossu Diamonds, a Canadian company devoted to creating memorial diamonds for pets. Following its successful launch in summer 2025, the business has helped dozens of pet parents seeking a personal tribute made from their companions’ fur or ashes.
“I knew this would be something pet parents like me would really cherish,” he says. “And it did.”
How Fur Or Ashes Can Become A Diamond
The possibility rests on the composition of diamond itself: crystalline carbon.
Laboratory-grown diamonds have essentially the same chemical, physical and optical properties as mined diamonds, according to the Gemological Institute of America. Ossu specializes in chemical vapor deposition, or CVD, an established growth method which uses carbon-containing gas to grow a diamond on a small diamond seed.
Ossu’s process begins by extracting and purifying carbon from the fur or ashes a customer provides. Carbon recovered from that material is used in CVD growth. The resulting rough diamond is then cut and polished, before being supplied loose or set into jewelry.
The connection lies in this source material. Something saved from your companion becomes part of a stone you can wear.
Using fur also makes it possible to begin while a pet is still alive. An owner can commission a tribute during the animal’s lifetime, without waiting for a goodbye.
Trust and Transparency At Every Step
The same source material that gives the product its meaning also raises its most consequential question: how does a pet parent entrust a company with something irreplaceable?
Ossu estimates five to six months for the full process. Understanding how a diamond grows is only part of the reassurance they need; they also need to know how their pet’s material is being handled.
The company assigns a unique identification number to each order when it is placed. That number accompanies their submitted cremains throughout the entire process. Each customer’s carbon is also processed and grown separately, without being pooled with other customers’ samples.
Customers receive regular updates as work progresses and can check in with the company anytime between stages.
According to Hinly, these measures provide personal care and transparency over a wait that lasts months. For a business built around personal source material, this high touch experience is crucial.
A Tribute Built to Last
Ossu Diamonds sits at the intersection of science, artistry, and love. It offers worldwide shipping to Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and select countries, extending its mission far beyond its Canadian roots. Wherever a pet parent lives, the promise is the same: a one-of-a-kind heirloom created from the companion who shaped their life.
Hinly created Ossu to help people stay connected with their beloveds long after goodbye. That mission runs through every diamond they grow. It is grief met with dignity, and love given a permanent form.
For anyone carrying the loss of a pet, or planning ahead, Ossu offers something rare. An extraordinary memorial for one who means the world to you.
Explore Ossu Diamonds
Find out more about Ossu Diamonds and their process.
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