'Quite profound': Grieving pet owners now have support in Regina

There are plenty of outlets for bereavement support when you lose a human family member, but there is often no place for people to go who lose their pets. 

Now, a support group in Regina is working to give people grieving the loss of their pet the help they need.

The Regina Humane Society and Speers Funeral Chapel are teaming up to offer a support group. They meet every first and third Monday evening of the month in the Speers Family Centre on Cornwall Street.

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Don Simons with the Humane Society said many people are sympathetic when someone loses a pet, but that's not always the case.

Simons said people who lose pets are often told "It's just a dog" or "It was just a cat." 

"I don't know how that ever makes it better to say that, and I don't think people are ever trying to be mean when they say that. They just don't understand and they don't understand your grief," he said. 

Simons said the people in the group work to create a place where there's no judgment for grieving a pet's death. 

Krista Christensen, continuing care coordinator at Speers Funeral Chapel, said she received a lot of calls from people asking for help with pet deaths in Regina.

"They support one another. They reach out to one another. They make sure everybody's heard," Christensen said. "They validate the feelings that they have. They share their own experiences and their own thoughts and feelings around that, and it's been really quite profound."

Christensen said there's been a similar group meeting in Saskatoon for many years. She said the group in Regina is growing.