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Decoration Day 2008: it gets weird
Evelyn Waugh's novel The Loved One is just about the only book I can name that was not ruined when it was made into a movie. If you recall either, you will remember that Dennis Barlow goes to work for a pet cemetery called Happy Hunting Grounds, while caught up in a love triangle with a cosmetologist and a mortician who work for a "people" cemetery, Whispering Glades.
Now, it appears life has begun to imitate art, sixty years after the novel's publication.
Florida's TV Channel 6 reports that a pets-only funeral home has opened for business in Pinellas Park. According to the station's May 17th dispatch:
The Pet Angel Memorial Center offers human touches to help pet owners mourn their animals, including viewing areas and a space for services. The service is part of a growing interest in pet loss services." We started the business because I don't have two-legged children," Pet Angel Memorial owner Colleen Ellis said. "All I have is four-legged children and I wanted her treated in the same way as the human funeral business, which is the business I come from." A new poll shows more Americans believe animals go to heaven. The funeral home will take care of all pets from dogs to iguanas, the report said. The services range in prices from $150 to thousands of dollars.
Now, if you can decipher the clumsy writing, you'll see that the owner of Pet Angel Memorial Center is a woman who has been in the human mortuary trade and has decided to branch out to a niche where there is as yet no competition.
But wait! ...
I had filed this absurd little story away, hoping to find a "hook" from which to comment. And damn if someone in Germany didn't come through. I was in the midst of a discussion about when and how it is appropriate to play Taps, on a forum run by Bugles Across America. My main question was whether Taps ought to be reserved for the military funeral honor rendered a veteran, and whether it would be more appropriate to play some other selection for general rememberances, such as the season opening of a yacht club (which had been proposed). The discussion drifted into the matter of whether a police officer or firefighter merits the playing of Taps at his funeral, if s/he is not a military veteran. I argued no, based upon the fact that at least in this part of the USA, the police and fire folks have their own funeral ritual, which involves Amazing Grace being played by a bagpiper or pipe band. I found myself in the minority, being attacked from both sides of the Atlantic when a couple of BAA members dropped the bomb that Hell, they'd even play Taps for the burial of a dog that had "served" in the military. (Never mind the question of that being involuntary servitude on the part of the dog, or of whether this practice insults human soldiers by equating them with canines.)
Next thing I knew, someone had mentioned the K9 Memorial Cards website, dedicated to "all working canines and law-enforcement horses." Shortly thereafter, I learned that there is actually a Canine Veterans' Day, apparently the creation of one JoeTheDogTrainer. As Joe explains, the US K9 Corps was officially created on March 13, 1942, and his goal is to have March 13th officially recognized by Congress as a holiday. (So now, we've even equated dogs with Martin Luther King, Jr.) "Joe" suggests that "you could decorate your local dog park that day, and simply be there to tell people why, or get your Mayor to make an official proclamation that day to pay tribute to the dogs, or help us to get names on our petition to Congress... I have made a list of additional ideas on our menu, and you are certainly welcome to send me your own ideas."
My German adversary included a press release that says this newly-minted holiday would "honor all the dogs of all our wars, to include the present war on terror. It will be a day when many breeds, plus mix breeds [mighty generous of them] are celebrated, as all have served in times of war. And because of 9/11 this day will also celebrate the honorable service of Search and Rescue Dogs, Police Dogs, Customs Dogs, Border Patrol Dogs, Secret Service Dogs, ATF Dogs, FBI Dogs, and more, as all are now involved in guarding our precious freedoms against terrorists.
Sorry to say, that just does not wash with me. Dogs used for these tasks do not "serve" because they made (or are capable) of exercising the free will to make a decision. The animal-rights weenies might even say they are "enslaved," and God help me, I think I agree.
Moreover, I think this mission-creep on the part of the buglers' association demeans the memories of those humans that we honor on Decoration Day and Armistice Day.
Suffice it to say that mine is the minority opinion: according to BAA it's appropriate for any bungler bugler to play Taps on any occasion whatsoever. Attempting to reduce the argument to the absurd (not a real stretch), I observed that next we'd be having Taps and funeral honors for all those bunnies and mice who gave their lives in service to the chemical/biological warfare defense labs of the Free World. And that the year after that, I fully expect to see funeral honors rendered to those mass graves--petri dishes--full of bacteria and viruses who sacrificed all.
The story has an interesting coda: I was dismissed from Bugles Across America by no less than The Founder Himself. As my father would have said, I've been thrown out of classier joints in my time...
musicnotes
I don't see animals as on the same level as humans, but I certainly
understand the grief and loss felt by pet owners. Less than three years
ago, we just had to have our first dog put to sleep after 13 years of
enjoying her company.
Wayne, thanks for commenting here and for re-posting it on your blog.