The lived experiences of veterinarians and personal pet loss: A phenomenological study

This qualitative, phenomenological study explored the experiences veterinarians had with the death of their personal pet. Engaging participants in face-to-face interviews, this qualitative design enabled an in-depth view of the experiences to be obtained. A convenience sample comprised of licensed veterinarians in a Mid-Atlantic region was employed as the target population. Participants discussed their feelings and beliefs about their loss of a personal pet through death, as well as their thoughts about ways in which counselor educators could contribute to cross-disciplinary training of veterinary and counseling students. A phenomenological method was utilized based on the work of A. Giorgi (2009) which allowed data to be captured from the lived experiences of the veterinarians. The findings of this study may encourage counselor educators to view the issue of pet loss as essential to consider in training counselors and emphasize the importance of counselor educators in the realm of veterinary care (c) Robin Raniero Norris, 2012.