Some pet owners are extra ordinarily dedicated and attached to their loving animal companions, so obviously when their best friends die, they will be grief – stricken and sometimes demolished. Towards this attitude of pet owners, other people often made fun of them by saying that ” How can you cry over a pet?” But this have seriously changed in the last forty years. However people’s attitude towards those people may change but the misconceptions about pet still exists which are as follows :-
1. Pet loss is insignificant when compared to the loss of human life. To mourn the loss of a pet devalues the importance of human relationships : -
This is so wrong. People are capable of caring and loving both animals and humans and when they live day – night with ONE person, he’ll get attached with it, doesn’t matter if he is a human or animal. The loss of a lovable animal can be equally emotionally significant or even more than a human. You cannot forget the time you have spend with your beloved pet.
2. It is best to replace the lost pet as quickly as possible. This will ease the pain of loss :-
Animal companions can’t be replaced, i mean seriously, how can someone even think about this? If your any friend dies, can you stop mourning by replacing him to other friend? No, you can’t. All of them different, separate individuals with unique personalities, People will need to be emotionally ready to adopt another pet before they can adopt a new animal into their family and hearts. Some people try to avoid the process of mourning by getting a ”replacement pet” which is not god for pets and people.
3. It is best to mourn alone :-
The myth is that its best to mourn alone, as this is the way of being independent and strong and burden other people with your problems. And also people thinks that everyone will make fun of them if they mourned over a pet. The truth is, it really takes courage to reach out to other people and mourners can get benefit by caring, empathy and understanding of other supportive people. But make sure to be selective about the person to whom you turn for help as some people do not take the pet loss seriously.
4. It is selfish to euthanize your pet :-
No, not at all. In fact, it is a humane and compassionate way to end quality of a life or intense suffering of your beloved animal. And believe me, it will be very selfish if you prolong the suffering of an injured or seriously ill animal. Just ask yourself – Whose best interests and needs are being served – owner who is being selfish here or that animal who is suffering ?
5. The best way to protect yourself from the pain of pet loss is to not get another pet :-
Keeping you away from getting an other animal companion is a very high price in order to insure yourself against experiencing another painful loss of a pet. But once you are emotionally ready for getting a new pet, you can adopt one, however make sure not to buy a pet which looks exactly same as the previous one as this will only remind you of your loss.
6. Pets don’t mourn for other pets :-
This is not true as some animals can create a strong bond to other animals in the household and if they dies, they will show same signs of mourning as people do such as loss of appetite, acting depressed and ”searching” for that loved one.
7. It is best to protect children from the upsetting truth of what has happened to their pet :-
Some caretakers/parents think that they are doing right by not telling the truth to their children that their pet has died. In order to cover up this story, they make a story that the pet ran away or they gave their pet away. But what the parents do not realize in doing so, through their deceits and lies, they’re undermining the trust, which children has in them and it will cause much more pain in the long run , for example, some children will only blame themselves if the pet has ”run away”.
8. Pet loss is something you should be able to “get over” on your own. There is no need for someone to see a professional pet loss counselor in order to deal with this :-
Some people have self – interested need for you to get over your pet as soon as possible, they feel uncomfortable with your melancholy. If you broke a leg then you’d go to a doctor in order to get some help so why you would not see a human – animal bond specialist to get some help for your broken heart? This will be seen as an investment for your mental health and also peace of mind.
