Paper short abstract:

The role of the vet and the vet's premises are explored in terms of the health, sickness, and final death of a pet, and of potential forms of symbolic echo that may resonate between them and the owner's emotional life.

Paper long abstract:

This paper concerns the complex relationship between pet health and death, pet-owner wellbeing, and the pivotal role of the veterinary practitioner. It represents part of the outcome of a very recently instituted pilot study of pet death and owner wellbeing currently underway at Durham University (Funded by Durham's Wolfson Institute). Issues to be explored will develop the interplay of pet health and pet death in relation to pet-owner health, bereavement, and grief. The part played by veterinary personnel, premises, and professional education will also be sketched as will end of life care of and for a pet, and for the treatment of the dead animal, not least in terms of the interplay of 'funeral' practice, both in terms of burial and cremation.