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When Fido dies and an owner wants his dog's body kept out of a local landfill or backyard, Flagstaff-area resident Russell Mann would like to pick it up, take it home and cremate it.

But the Pine Del resident and former county morgue assistant is facing opposition from at least 21 of his neighbors over his plan to build a 1,600-degree crematorium on his half-acre residential lot.

Some say the proposed business, located south of Flagstaff, might add traffic to the neighborhood, result in dead animals accidentally being left on the wrong doorsteps, and hurt the value of their homes.

"By and large, people are uncomfortable with this sort of facility in a neighborhood, and that will reduce property values," homeowner Charles Grogan said.

Grogan and his wife, an instructor at Northern Arizona University, used everything they had to buy their home in Pine Del, moving in about a year ago, he said.

He can't afford to lose value in his home, he said.

Admittedly, the cremation business comes with a "creepiness factor" that makes some uncomfortable, Mann acknowledged to Coconino County planners. And that is even if it operates as planned, producing no smoke or odor. He offered to operate the business only at night, if neighbors would prefer, and he made a couple other concessions.

The Coconino County Planning and Zoning Commission approved a special-use permit for the business on April 24 by a vote of 5-2.

Mann, a foster father and mortuary assistant, said there's a need for a local service that would pick up dead pets, cremate them, then offer the ashes to the owner or for burial in his garden.

"It's just disrespectful to me" Mann said, to stack dogs in a freezer for cremation far away or send the bodies to a landfill.

One local business does cremate pets, he said, but it doesn't provide pickup service.

Mann would be spending about $40,000, and his retirement savings, to start the business if the Coconino County Board of Supervisors approves the plan next week.

That approval would have to come over the opposition of the 21 people who appealed the April decision. A few neighbors support Mann's proposal.