c. 2005 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) 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 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, Pam 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 Pam’s 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 Pam Carpenter. Gierka also encouraged the couple to share funny memories, like how Niki hated to be outdoors. “It lightened the load,” Pam Carpenter 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.

Though he is a Baptist, Gierka stressed that his work is non-denominational. Sometimes, he said, it’s not even directly spiritual. Much of what he does is “just listening.”

Children and the elderly are particularly 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.

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Gierka tries to provide children with a sense of closure when their pets die. He recalled a burial service he performed in a family’s backyard.

“The children felt they could still play with their pet, because it was still in the yard,” he said. Sometimes he releases a balloon to signify a pet’s spirit rising up to heaven.

Older pet owners, Gierka said, often count on their pets for companionship and validation.

“When that pet dies,” Gierka said, “who’s relying on them anymore for life?”

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The Rev. Sandra Shaw, a pet chaplain in Escondido, Calif., recently helped an elderly friend of her mother’s adopt a cat.

“She told me, `I need help in picking just the right one,”’ said Shaw, 54. They chose a calico that “just turned into a noodle” when the older woman held her.

Unlike Gierka, Shaw ministers to animals as well as people. She visits animal shelters, praying with “pets without people.”

Shaw knows some are skeptical that animals understand the concept of God, or that they have a soul. But her metaphysical upbringing has taught her otherwise.

“I see God in everything,” said Shaw, an ordained minister in the Universal Church.

Animals may not understand her prayers, Shaw said, but they can feel a sense of calm come over her that she likens to God’s presence.

“They feel our change as we change when we pray,” she said.

So committed is Shaw to her work that she created a pet chaplaincy training program. For $85 to cover materials, she ships out a binder full of lessons, and “ordains” new chaplains with a certificate. She never refuses anyone who can’t pay the fee, she said. Like Gierka, Shaw does not charge for her chaplaincy work.

Shaw’s program is not accredited by any higher body of education. But she says she is careful in how she represents herself.

“I do stress to people that we are not professional grief counselors,” she said. “I watch for red flags.” She refers anyone who is severely depressed to a therapist.

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Though Shaw’s Web site lists 30 other pet chaplains who are taking or have completed her course, she does not monitor their work.

Gierka is somewhat concerned that other pet chaplains have not had the professional grief training that he has. Hoping to get a grant for future chaplaincy training at the animal hospital, he also expressed concern that their prayer with animals may give others the wrong idea about his ministry.

“I love the animals,” he said, “but my chaplaincy work, at the end of the day, is about caring for the people who care for the animals. This way, we all have someone who cares and that’s what love’s about.”

MO/PH END RNS

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