A Christchurch woman has combined her love of animals and counselling training to create a market niche that is big business in the United States.
Gaelynn Beswick has set up Loving Tributes, a service for bereaved pet-owners who may need help with arrangements or the support of a qualified grief counsellor.
After a lifestyle change and a year spent at home writing, Beswick, who has worked for Lifeline and the Samaritans, said she was looking for a way to rejoin society that combined her affinity with animals and past professional and personal experiences.
"I came up with this idea and did some research on it and found that it is really big in America," she said. "The vets are wonderful but there's not a lot of support here."
Beswick's service has been open for almost three months and she says word has spread.
She believed the level of grief experienced by a pet-owner when a companion died could be equivalent to the loss of a human.
"For many people pets are family. It can be devastating for children and adults when a loved pet dies. Because society doesn't readily acknowledge this grief, pet-lovers often feel alone and misunderstood."
The Beswick family know how sad the loss of a pet can be, having decided this year to put down their beloved 12-year-old newfoundland, Bonza.
"We had him in the lounge in a casket for a day," she said. "Some of the other family and I wrote messages on the casket and then we buried him under the cherry tree in the garden."
Beswick said it was difficult to estimate her potential market. Some people felt the right thing to do was to bury a pet without ceremony.
To date, requests from clients had been varied.
"Sometimes elderly people are unable to dig a burial plot in their backyard, and so we help them," she said. "Other times it is going to see them in their homes for grief support counselling."
- NZPA
Animal-lover taps into vein of sorrow
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