Chaplains offer comfort to pet owners

Posted: 1/20/06

Chaplains offer comfort to pet owners

By Nicole Larosa

Religion News Service

RALEIGH, N.C. (RNS)–When her cocker spaniel died last June, Pam Carpenter was devastated. Niki was the family clown. Abused as a puppy, he thrived after Carpenter adopted him, and he wielded control over her husband, Don, and their seven other dogs on their North Carolina farm.

So, when chronic bronchitis meant Niki had to be euthanized, Mrs. Carpenter needed support. Enter the pet chaplain.

Like a handful of others across the country, Rob Gierka of Raleigh, N.C., is a chaplain for pet owners. Based at a veterinary hospital, he conducts pet blessings and funerals, honors prayer requests for pets, and lends an ear to those grieving the loss of their faithful furry friends.

Gierka drove over an hour to be with the Carpenter family that evening. A friend of Mrs. Carpenter from graduate school, he led the family in a celebration of Niki's life.

“He played music. He read some prayers. We talked about Niki and about a lot of things related to life and death and spirituality,” said Mrs. Carpenter. Gierka also encouraged the couple to share funny memories, like how Niki hated to be outdoors. “It lightened the load,” she said.

Gierka was a lay chaplain at his Baptist church and trained as a professional chaplain in a human hospital. But as an animal lover who had “lots of dogs and gerbils” as a child, he noticed an unmet need in people grieving for their pets.

“The loss of a pet is not trivial. Serious issues come up,” he said. “The kind of grief that a person is feeling isn't quite acceptable in the culture we live in.”

Wearing a badge that says “chaplain,” Gierka offers support to anxious pet owners in the waiting room, or after their pet is put to sleep. He also ministers to hospital staff, whom pet owners often lash out at when they learn their animals must be put down.

Although he is a Baptist, Gierka stressed that his work is nondenominational. Some-times, he said, it's not even directly spiritual. Much of what he does is “just listening.”

Children and the elderly particularly are affected by a pet's death, Gierka said.

He remembers a 10-year-old boy who prayed for a miracle to save his dog. But the vet told the boy's mother the animal was dying. Telling her son that God wouldn't answer his prayer was difficult.

“That's a theological problem,” said Gierka, and the kind he's trained to help with.