ABSTRACT
Commemorative rituals for other than human animals are often fraught with religious and social debates, raising questions about why humans commemorate animals, which animals are deemed worthy of commemoration, whether and how the commemoration of animals differs from that of humans, and what implications such commemoration has for living animals. This chapter explores these questions through examples from Asia, North America, and Europe. Such commemorative rituals demonstrate that some charismatic animals have been included as subjects in religious communities and provide the human participants with opportunities for emotional resolution. But due to persistent ritual and spatial differences from human mortuary practices, commemorative rites tend to reaffirm conceptual distinctions between humans and other than human animals. Therefore, they have not brought about systemic changes that would prevent animal exploitation.
