Veldkamp, Elmer

Anthrozoos: A Multidisciplinary Journal of The Interactions of People & Animals, Volume 22, Number 4, December 2009

Discussions on the popularity of pet animals in present day Japan tend to stress the position of pets in a family as resembling that of human family members. In this paper, I investigate this claim by analyzing the meanings that have been attributed to animal burial and pet graves in modern history.

 Durkin, Anne. Quinnipiac University, Hamden, CT 06518, USA. anne.durkin@quinnipiac.edu

Bishop, Gail A.  Long, Christie C.  Carlsten, Kelly S.  Kennedy, Katie C.  Shaw, Jane R.pethosp@colostate.edu

Journal of Veterinary Medical Education.  35(4):525-31, 2008.  

While the concept of hospice care for humans has existed for decades and is an integral part of the dying process, providing hospice care for companion animals is a new and growing service. Veterinarians and pet-owners have recently recognized that there is a need and a demand to care for pets with terminal illnesses. The Colorado State University Pet Hospice program meets those needs through supporting pets, their owners, and veterinarians, and educating professional veterinary students in end-of-life care. Developed in 2003, Pet Hospice is a student-run program that trains veterinary students in animal hospice care, and matches them with the family and veterinarian of a terminally ill pet in the community. Since its inception, 101 veterinary student volunteers have been trained and provided support to 68 families. Continued expansion of the client base, enlargement of the network of veterinarians and volunteers, and positive program evaluations reflect the strong impact of Pet Hospice and its support from veterinary students, veterinarians, and the community.

Malmierca, E.

Ateuves. ASIS Veterinaria s.l., Zaragoza, Spain: 2007. 2: 12, 10-14, 16-18.

Veterinarians need to show understanding and provide more personal treatment during visits where clients' pets are put down. Reasons for putting down animals include loss of quality of life due to old age, terminal illnesses, or non-treatable behavioural problems. Vets can and should assess, explain and help, but never make the decision regarding animal euthanasia. Sometimes pet owners may decide to prolong animals' lives for selfish reasons, in which case the vet may need to help owners reach a different decision. Grief is a psychological trauma which should heal with time. There are four stages in the grieving process: denial, aggressiveness, depression and acceptance. The duration and intensity of grieving is influenced by factors such as the type of death, the quality of the relationship between pet and owner, and the owner's age. In the period leading up to euthanasia, veterinary nurses should attend to the comfort and wellbeing of both pets and owners, and help allay owners' fears. After the process is completed, the corpse should be covered with a blanket and removed to another place. Owners should be offered somewhere tranquil where they can collect their thoughts. In many cases losing a pet is like losing a family member, so treating the corpse as an object is not appropriate. It is normal for pet corpses to be dealt with by municipal services. Sometimes corpses need to be stored until there are enough to cover disposal costs. Technically there is no difference between incineration and cremation, but the International Cremation Federation has established that the correct term for humans is cremation. Animal incinerators have followed this trend by establishing pet crematoria. Recently formed companies have trained their staff to deal with the psychology of human grieving. There are few pet cemeteries in Spain, but vets should be able to provide information about these if necessary. After the death of an animal, the veterinarian should keep in contact with the owner. It is also important to ensure that records are updated so that, for example, vaccination notices are not sent out for deceased pets.

Anthrozoos: A Multidisciplinary Journal of The Interactions of People & Animals, Volume 21, Number 2, June 2008 , pp. 109-121(13)

One of the many impacts of natural disasters on the well-being of the humans who experience them is enforced abandonment and loss of companion animals. Hurricane Katrina, which struck the gulf coast of the United States in late August, 2005, was such a disaster. This study assessed the psychological effects of pet loss on survivors of Hurricane Katrina. Sixty-five predominantly white, female, middle-aged pet owners who lived in affected regions of the country completed online questionnaires, assessing symptoms of depression, acute stress, peri-traumatic dissociation, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Almost all companion animals were cats or dogs. Pet loss was strongly associated with psychopathology across all measures, even when controlling for displacement from the home (Wilks' Lambda F(4,57) = 5.22, p = 0.001). The impact of pet loss on PTSD was mediated by acute stress and dissociative symptoms during the evacuation (both F(1,61) > 9.3, both p < 0.01). This suggests that forced abandonment of a companion animal during an evacuation adds considerably to the acute trauma, thereby increasing the risk of long-term PTSD. The impact of pet loss on depressive symptoms, however, was independent of acute stress and dissociation (F(1,31) = 15.03, p = 0.001), suggesting that it is both the acute loss of the pet as well as the continued absence of the pet itself that contributes to depressive symptom severity.

Passantino, A.; Fenga, C.; Morciano, C.; Morelli, C.; Russo, M.; Pietro, C. di; Passantino, M.;
 

Annali dell'Istituto Superiore di Sanita. Istituto Superiore di Sanita, Roma, Italy: 2006. 42: 4, 491-495.

In Italy, the conditions under which euthanasia of small pets is justified are only partially regulated by law, i.e., n. 281/1991, article 2 n. 6 and 9, by the later Ministry Circular n. 9 made on 10/03/1992 and by law n. 189/2004. Law n. 281/1991, besides delegating the job of birth control in cat and dog populations to the regions, has made it statutory that stray dogs may only be euthanized when they are "seriously or incurably ill or proven to be dangerous". The Ministry Circular underlines the fact that "euthanasia of dogs is prohibited except in special justified cases". On the other hand, due to the legal classification of animals as property, the owner has the right of ownership over his animal so that he can sell it and kill it (ius vitae ac necis). In this view a request for euthanasia is licit, whatever the animal's state of health may be. The authors feel that further legislation to regulate the question more completely would be opportune and thus they analyse the problems of legal-ethics and public health that a veterinarian faces when carrying out euthanasia, also bearing in mind the laws and codes of professional ethics. They suggest possible solutions which could be adopted by competent authorities.

  Journal Society and Animals , 10, 1 , 2002, 93-105

Lynn A. Planchon, Donald I. Templer, Shelley Stokes and Jacqueline Keller

This study found that death depression, general depression, and positive attitudes toward, and attachment to, companion animals were associated with greater grief following the death of cats and dogs both in a veterinary client group who had recently lost their companion animals and in a college student group with a history of companion animal loss. The correlations of both the above variables and the demographic and death circumstance variables tended to be higher with the veterinary clients. Death of a dog by accident as opposed to illness correlated .81 with extended grief in the veterinary clients. Not having their dogs euthanized correlated .70 with extended grief in this group as well.

  Journal of Family Social Work Volume: 7 Issue: 1  : 69 - 81 

Approximately half of American households include at least one companion animal. These anilmas quickly become members of the family. When the animal dies, the human grieves the loss much as they would grieve the death of any family member. This article presents a social work model for assisting clients with pet loss. This model blends traditional grief therapy with the ecosystems perspective of social work practice, and applies that to loss specific to the death of a companion animal. Social workers must increase their competence in addressing issues of pet loss with clients. This model can provide a fundation for the development of the competence.

M. Geraldine Gage, Ralph Holcomb

Family Relations, Vol. 40, No. 1 (Jan., 1991), pp. 103-105

A survey mailed to 1,650 mid-life couples resulted in a subsample of 242 couples whose pet had died during the 3 years prior to the survey. Among the subsample who reported pet loss, about half of wives and more than a quarter of husbands reported they were "quite" or "extremely" disturbed by the death of a family pet. For husbands, pet loss was rated about as stressful as the loss of a close friendship, for wives about as stressful as losing touch with their married children. There was consensus on the rating of the stressfulness of pet loss by fewer than half of the couples.

 Kenneth R. Kaufman a; Nathaniel D. Kaufman b

Death Studies, 30, 1 2006 , pages 61 - 76

Childhood grief and mourning of family and friends may have immediate and long-lasting consequences including depression, anxiety, social withdrawal, behavioral disturbances, and school underachievement. Childhood pet bereavement is no less important, because the pet is often considered a member of the family by the child. However, society does not always acknowledge the significance of pet bereavement, which can result in unresolved grief. This article, a case analysis with literature review, addresses childhood pet bereavement in the context of multiple prior losses (K. R. Kaufman & N. D. Kaufman, 2005). This case mirrors both old and new findings in grief research and therapy: (a) beneficial response to emotional expression of grief in context of search for meaning; (b) beneficial response to cognitive approach toward grief with ability to prevent development of complicated grief even in the face of multiple losses; (c) beneficial effects associated with supportive family and with positive self-concept; (d) intensity of grief magnified by the child's degree of attachment to the pet, the suddenness of the pet's death, the multiple prior losses, and the role of the pet in the child's life; and (e) resiliency. This case further emphasizes the need for parents not to trivialize death of pets, to appreciate the role pets have in children's lives, and to assist the child in multiple approaches toward expression (be it verbal, written, or artistic). Finally, this case reinforces the ability of the child to assist in family bereavement and to serve as teacher.