Extending the mourning, funeral, and memorialization consumption practices to the human–pet relationship

This chapter will briefly focus on the human-pet bond when elevated to the level of family member status, and focus on the ways in which humans engage in psychological and consumption practices normally held for human family members after a death. Primarily from an Amer ican perspective, the practices of mourning, funeral rites, and memorialization, both as social events and through consuming goods, will be explored as they relate to the loss of one’s pet.