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FOR TWO WEEKS in a row, the front page stories I penned for my local paper in Crossmaglen, involved the abuse of dogs.
Firstly an elderly lady was out walking her dog – her family had bought her a pet for companionship – when a group of young people on bikes grabbed the lead out of her hand and dragged the little dog along the road as they sped off.
The poor pet was eventually found whimpering underneath a lorry on the other side of the town.
But the second incident, a few days later, dwarfed that one – it was absolutely horrific.
A beloved family pet was doused in corrosive acid. The vet who treated the dog said: “This is the worst case of animal cruelty I have ever come across. I will take this case to my grave.
“You could smell the burning off the animal and the skin was falling away. The dog’s tongue was ulcerated as it was licking the acid off of its skin,” he said.
Sadly the dog’s injuries were so severe that the vet had no choice but to put him down.
How someone could be so cruel and vicious towards a defenseless family pet is beyond my comprehension.
Had the latter incident happened to my family dog, I would obviously have been distraught but then I would have done something which some people might not understand. I would have held a religious end of life ceremony for my dog.
I am a Catholic (although admittedly I attend mass very infrequently) and as such, I believe that everyone is imbued with God’s spirit and so everyone is worthy of respect and dignity.
If God created the universe, he also created animal life and I believe that God’s spirit is imbued in all his creatures.
Pope John Paul II said: “animals possess a soul and men must love and feel solidarity with our smaller brethren.”
He added that animals are “as near to God as men are.”
Family pets, especially dogs, add so much to people’s lives. They offer companionship, loyalty and comfort. Very often, they are valued members of the family who have been with us for many years.
As members of our families surely a ceremony of some sorts to acknowledge all they have given to us would be appropriate.
Father Declan O’Loughlin, a Catholic priest and Diocesan Advisor for Post-Primary Religious Education, says that while we should love and respect all of creation there is a spiritual distinction between us and our pets – as animals don’t have souls in the same way as human beings do.
“When a person dies we honour the person’s mortal remains as it possessed the indwelling of God’s Holy Spirit and was once a dwelling place for divine life. Hence a funeral liturgy is special for deceased human remains,” says Father O’Loughlin.
“Pets are close to us; they return affection to us and are often loyal and beautiful companions,” he says.
But “Jesus speaks of preparing a place in his Father’s home for his disciples. He does not hint that other creatures will share in his resurrection and so share in his divine risen life,” he says.
Despite the clear assertion that pets are spiritually very different from humans, Father O’Loughlin doesn’t object to pets being given some type of ceremony when they die.
“It is nice to bury pets with affection and dignity. It affords comfort to their owners. For a family to thank God for the loyalty, pleasure, and affection shown to them by their departed pet seems fine to me,” he says.
Although that wouldn’t be a religious service akin to a human funeral, in his view.
Yet there are religious leaders who do perform such ceremonies. The Anglican Reverend James Thompson, who died in 2015, was affectionately known as the ‘animal Padre’ and he regularly blessed animals and held religious end-of-life ceremonies for them.
In 2012 he appeared on Channel 4’s 4thought.tv – a show that reflects on religious and ethical issues, and aspects of spiritual life.
“It is only right and proper that when an animal dies that it should receive a blessing from a clergyman,” said Thompson speaking on 4thought.tv.
He recounted the story of a young Czechoslovakian woman who asked him to bury her dog, as part of the ceremony she lit a candle to represent each year in the dog’s life.
As those candles flickered, Thompson sensed the presence of God. “I could have wept – not wept with sorrow, but with blessing because I felt the presence of God so close,” he said.
He also recounted his visits to animal cemeteries, where he said the atmosphere is deeply spiritual. He could feel “the little animals’ presence all around the cemetery,” he said. “The atmosphere is truly idyllic. It’s a foretaste of heaven.”
I believe that lots of people would like to hold a ceremony for their dead pets especially those that have been part of their family for many years.
Indeed children often do bury animals and erect crosses on their graves.
So if you feel it is the right thing to do, then you should hold an end of life ceremony for your pet, if you choose to bring religious scripture into it that is also your choice.
Indeed, in the Old Testament, there is a passage from the third chapter of the Book of Ecclesiastes which seems to support the idea that we are the same as animals in death.
Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other.
All have the same breath; humans have no advantage over animals. All go to the same place; all come from dust and to dust all return.
Diarmuid Pepper is a freelance journalist and formerly a teacher of philosophy and religious studies.
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Well balanced and non judgemental article.. if only everyone could think and act that way…
What we need is a Whole System that works,
It’s time to drain the sespool of leaders and show them with your VOTES , who are the real bosses , they work for us ,NOT the other way around
@Karllye kripton: the politicians don’t decide what drugs get approved, to do so would drive healthcare to a dystopian system to be decided by public opinion rather than expert medical professionals, so I’m unsure how votes would achieve your desired effect
@Karllye kripton: that’ll make a huge difference .. not .. you cant vote out any of the leaders in THE HSE .. they are employees if the state …
@Vocal Outrage: Unfortunately this isn’t true. Look at Orkambi. Deemed to be not cost effective by the NCPE. Recommended not for reimbursement. Simon Harris decides to fund it. Despite this money coming at the expense of various other cost effective treatments. I wish the general public were fully aware of what a self serving decision this was, and how much it has cost the HSE, for a very marginal benefit, when you look at the overall CF population. But it looks good in the press.
@Peter Wheen: my point exactly, when you make populist medical policy decisions like that, against professional advice, then other parts of the service will suffer. I guess I was referring to how it should be
My mum was seen by many consultants in a private hospital in Dublin for pains that eventually had her bed ridden. After 4 months of various tests and different pain killers she took very ill and rushed to hospital. A simple CT scan not done previuosly by any consultant showed she was riddled with cancer and died the next day. My trust in private hospitals was questioned from that day onwards..
I remember my granfather saying he was on 9 pills a day in his late 70s. Now a day most fit 30 year olds are putting 4 tablets into themselves
Something is definitely wrong if half a million people are on anti depressiants. It’s all a scam
@Tom Padraig: Perhaps rather than blaming the medication, you should consider the circumstances that lead to people requiring antidepressants as opposed to labelling it all a scam.
@Philip Kavanagh: He is not wrong. One example would be the number of teens on Meds to treat their “ADHD” because they once told mummy to fork orf after eating a bag of skittles and downing five cans of red bull.
@Philip Kavanagh: As evidenced by the experience of those involved in the Air Corps chemical scandal, many if not most people on ADs do not need them. However they are the current quick “fix” for clinicians and a very lucrative one for industry.
The overprescription of ADs is a scourge & a scandal. The increase in anxiety & depression is being driven by what we eat, what we drink and what we breath.
ADs are one of the current unsustainable answers to an already unsustainable problem, counselling is the other.
Treating depression & anxiety along with so called suicide prevention is a fooking industry at this point.
@Ronan Sexton: He is wrong. Some people need antidepressants for a specific period, others will be on them for life. Like for most illnesses, medication is only one of the range of treatments. To write it all of as a scam is dangerous and stupid.
@Chemical Brothers: Back up your unsubstantiated claim with actual sources that “many if not most people on ADs do not need them”.
@Philip Kavanagh: The numbers on antidepressants in Ireland is simply staggering. To believe that all these people actually have mental health illnesses is simply beyond belief.
We are mass medicating a massive portion of our population out of ignorance.
I suppose the matter of not wasting billions on whats planned to be a multi tier health system for our kids in the supposed “best new hospital in the world (if you are wealthy and can afford expensive health insurance)”, would allow us buy a couple of billions more worth of drugs.
Can I ask if Dr. O’Connor believes, like a recently published Cork based gastroenterologist, that IBS is a psychosomatic illness?
“More than 50 per cent of my outpatients have symptoms caused by psychosomatic conditions, such as irritable bowel syndrome, which cannot be elucidated or cured by the molecular biologists”
@Chemical Brothers: wow, a little off topic, no?
@James Brady: Not really IBS and the like is overwhelming Gastroenterology Depts in all our hospitals. If all Gastroenterologists think IBS is psychosomatic then the problem is not being dealt with properly and is a further drain on the same pot of resources.
It stands to reason that if spending on expensive drugs means less money for other hospital spending then if something else is using up funds like for huge numbers of unnecessary “arse covering” endoscopy that then further eats into the same pool of money.
@Chemical Brothers: It’s not unnecessary. It is necessary to investigate or you can’t say with confidence that pt has IBS as opposed to something more serious. IBS is a diagnosis of exclusion. If gastroenterologist is arranging endoscopy to investigate, they are likely looking to rule out conditions with overlapping presentations such as coeliac, crohns, ulcerative colitis. When all investigations are negative and the symptoms are still of concern, it is not unreasonable to attempt treatments which have evidence of working in these cohorts of patients such as specific diets etc.
@Stephen Chaney: Thanks for reply. Considering the large percentage of those diagnosed with IBS in outpatient clinics would an approach of trying diet first rather than an expensive, invasive, unpleasant endoscopy procedure with attendant risk be a better course of action?
Is the endoscopy first approach being driven more by fear of missing a cancer and being sued for same rather than what may be a simpler approach?
Genuinely just asking, have had cameras both ends with nothing sinister found but have subsequently had success with dietary measures but not necessarily measures that consultants are familiar with.
This is one of the best articles offering a comprehensive and fair analysis on our Health System, I can’t fault it. This should be framed.
Agree with Dr O’Connor – balanced views sustained by experience. Have been treated well in both systems, though public AnE requires patience.
In the UK there are set targets for delivery – something like Cancer surgery within 4 weeks maximum. If we set our public hospitals targets and then offered the patient free private care if not met that would focus minds on efficiencies.
@Pat Redmond: or just pay hospitals (and drs etc) per procedure. The countries with the shortest waiting lists are those with systems based on insurance where hospitals are paid like that.
he makes some valid points, but the chances of Ireland producing a high quality low cost health service are slim. We don’t do low cost for things like that in this country.
Great article and much that needs to be said- just would like to suggest another option- we need to recognise that the price tag on patented medicines bears no relationship to the cost of bringing the drug to market- but is the price unilaterally set by Pharma and is based on the maximum profit it can bring to its shareholders- which for life saving or life enhancing drugs is very high indeed. We need to bring some balance of power to the negotiating table to prevent monopoly abuse- ultimately by replacing the monopoly with an alternative incentive such as grants for R&D.
Off topic.
have your say