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Love Animals? Maybe You Could Become a Pet Chaplain
Orginally published on Monday, June 19, 2006 at 9:22 PM
by Todd Rhoades
You can't make this stuff up! This is from the Herald Sun in Australia...The Lort Smith Animal Hospital in North Melbourne is advertising for a fully ordained minister to become its pet chaplain.
Lort Smith chief executive Ric Holland expects to make an appointment, which he believes will be a world first, by the end of this month.
The chaplain will be a minister who will be responsible for pastoral care for pet owners and the hospital’s staff of more than 100.
“I believe we as an animal hospital need to provide more counselling and support for people who are anxious and distressed,” Mr Holland said yesterday.
“If someone loses a pet it can have the same sort of emotional impact as losing a family member.
“Helping people to come to terms with their loss, to open up and hopefully to move on, is a role best done by a chaplain.”
Mr Holland, himself a Uniting Church minister, says that a third of all telephone calls to Lort Smith are emotional rather than veterinary.
He said he was concerned for Lort Smith staff and volunteers, who were often traumatised by the rapid turnover of animals with serious illnesses and injuries.
The hospital has to euthanise about 300 diseased, injured and unwanted animals every month.
“It’s distressing for our people and traumatic for pet owners, so we need someone who can give a big compassionate ear,” Mr Holland said.
You can read more here.
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Posted by dcypl
Monday, June 19, 2006 at 11:03 PM
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Posted by Bart
Tuesday, June 20, 2006 at 11:37 AM
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Posted by dcypl
Tuesday, June 20, 2006 at 4:23 PM
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Posted by shadowette
Thursday, June 22, 2006 at 11:03 AM
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Posted by Pet Dog Blog
Sunday, July 20, 2008 at 3:23 PM
Post Your Comments:Ha!
Those Australians!
We are always seeking world firsts down here, seriously on the bleeding edge of ministry and missiology.
Read the article and not just the headline. This place has a staff of over 100. We all know that pet lovers do become emotionally attached to thier pets and this could be a very emotional place to work. This is not a chaplain to the pets, but to pet owners and veterinary staff.
Bart, I can read,
My work has a staff of over a hundred, we don’t have a Chaplain. I’m sure people know where to go to see the minister/priest/rabbi of their persuasion.
Some people expend more energy caring for and about pets than about people. My father spent years talking more to the family cat than to his wife or kids. I acknowledge the grief is real when a pet dies, but it’s just a substitute for real love in relationship. The companionship provided is not a relationship in the human to human sense, and shouldn’t be confused or brought up to that level.
Our efforts should be in Nursing Homes and Hospitals not at the Vet.
I disagree completely. There’s a difference between working in a 100 member organization and working in a 100 person hospital. Be it a pet hospital or other. Anytime you take on the responsibility of someone or something’s life, you get emotionally tied to it. Then how do you feel when it dies, and you fail? Do you know? I don’t. I chose not to when I chose to a business major over medical school. Heck, I’ve been sad when I accidentally killed one of my plants. I can’t imagine what it would feel like to fail at saving an animal that belonged to someone else. Besides, don’t most hospitals in the US have staff chaplains for the same reason? I know that’s why they have them in the military.
As for the animal companionship, some people do treat their animals as people, and it is wrong. But what better way to help those people see the error in their ways, than to be there when that animal dies? Don’t they need to be ministered to as well? Shouldn’t they be helped BEFORE they get put into a nursing home, or in a hospital? What if we can help them when their pet dies instead of their spouse or another loved one? There’s room for ministers everywhere. What’s so wrong with having one here? Especially one who’s passionate about the service he is providing.
I think there is nothing wrong with loving your animal. That is pretty cold way of saying things dcpl.
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