The loss of a pet is one of the most traumatic experiences someone can face and one some pet owners never get over.
By the time their three-year-old cairn terrier, Ralphie, passed away, his owners were completely heartbroken. After endless trips to the vet, a diagnosis of severe allergies followed by ultimately unsuccessful medical procedures, they watched their faithful dog struggle. They finally had no choice but to euthanize.
“We gave him a small private family funeral and then cremated him. You just don’t get over that kind of loss, but it helped,” said Jullian Brace, who is also a funeral director at Deceased Pet Care Funeral Home and Crematory in Atlanta, Georgia.
“It is important to take the time to grieve for pets,” Brace said. “Most of our clients see their ‘pets’ as family members. They often refer to their pets as their child or baby. Our business feels exactly the same way. As animal lovers ourselves, we seek to offer that compassion and understanding to our clients.”
Many pet funeral homes now offer support groups and grief counseling to ease the pain for pet owners who might not know how to cope with their feelings of loss. Psychologists increasingly acknowledge the deep emotional bonds people form with pets. Older people who lose a pet and may have been living alone can be especially affected by the loss of atheir companion. In fact, during the pet grieving process, people can feel the same five different stages of mourning experienced in any loss: denial, anger, bargaining, depression (often the longest stage) and ultimately, acceptance.
The International Association of Pet Cemeteries and Crematories
As pet ownership balloons in the United States, there has been a discernible shift toward more compassion for grieving pet owners.
Brenda Drown, executive secretary of The International Association of Pet Cemeteries and Crematories (IAPC), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of pet cemeteries everywhere through public-awareness programs, remembers that people used to snicker when they heard their name. No longer.
“Now, pets are a major parts of people’s lives, a member of the family … we’ve seen many changes during our thirty-one years of operation,” Drown said.
