Grieving the Loss of a Pet
This past week marked the 5th annual “Giving Tuesday”, a global event that kicks off the charitable season.
Animal shelters are among those that rely on this special day for contributions, and this year the Baltimore Humane Society came up with an unusual pitch.
Shelter managers joined dogs and cats in their cages and enclosures.
The message? Incoming donations could unlock the doors and enable managers to resume their important work. The campaign resonated with a lot of folks who responded with over $14,000 in contributions.
Charitable giving is surely the lifeblood of private shelters. But Bmore Humane does have one source of funding that it generates on its own. It has a large pet cemetery and offers burial services for beloved pets that have died.
Some might find the idea of a pet funeral silly, not understanding the deep grief that many feel when they lose a much-loved animal.
If there are those who don’t get it, be assured the Humane Society does.
It even has a monthly pet loss support group conducted in conjunction with Stella Maris.
“Pets are just as close to you and a part of your family as a human may be,” says the Humane Society’s Wendy Goldband. “…The loss of a pet is real grief. And grief is grief.”
Carol Jenkins, the support group’s bereavement counselor says, “Society doesn’t really have a place to sanction mourning for people who’ve lost their pets.” She explains that because friends and others might not understand the pain, those grieving get the message that “their loss doesn’t matter as much as other losses.”
Support group meetings offer participants a place to be fully understood.
Cemetery and Funeral Director, Matt Wilson says this focus helps carry on the mission of the shelter’s founder, Elsie Seeger Barton.
Barton included a pet cemetery in her original shelter on Park Heights Avenue in 1936. When she moved the Baltimore Humane Society to its current home on Nicodemus Rd., she transferred 800 graves there. Today close to 9 thousand animals are buried in the cemetery.
All money generated by the memorial park goes into the shelter’s operations.
Karen and John Wotton say that was comforting to them when they recently decided to bury their Bassett Hound, Tank, in Bmore Humane’s cemetery. They feel Tank is helping other animals in this way.
Tank was a service dog for the SPCA in Orlando, Florida where the Wottons live, and was with Karen visiting her parents in Baltimore when he died. They held a funeral and recently visited the cemetery to place a gravestone.
Watch this short video to meet the Wottons and see the beautiful resting place they’ve found for their beloved dog, Tank.
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