Sacred Sendoffs: An Animal Chaplain's Advice for Surviving Animal Loss, Making Life Meaningful, and Healing the Planet

by Sarah A. Bowen

Overview

2023 IPPY Gold Award Winner | Animals/Pets

An elegant manifesto for improving life―and death―for all beings on sacred Mother Earth

"If there is one book you choose to read about how to enjoy and improve your relationships with animals and fully appreciate who they truly are, this is the one." ― MARC BEKOFF, author of The Emotional Lives of Animals and other books; Professor emeritus of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder

Combining humorous anecdotes and thought-provoking research, Sacred Sendoffs explores human relationships with beloved pets, wild creatures, animal astronauts, marine life, farmed animals, and other sentient beings. Along the way, animal chaplain Sarah Bowen shares insights for sustaining their lives, honoring deaths, and managing the emotions that arise when we lose an animal we love. While many books focus exclusively on pet loss, animal welfare, or environmental issues, Bowen’s ever curious and playful style takes on all three, revealing their unavoidable entanglement. Sacred Sendoffs helps animal lovers uncover practical actions and everyday opportunities for helping the more-than-human world thrive.

“Bowen covers a great deal of ground here, creating a new paradigm for thinking about the way we treat our closest companions and fellow beings. And she offers hope for the future, reminding us that learning to value animals in life and death may be the first step toward saving our beloved planet.” ― Book Review, Spirituality & Health Magazine

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781948626590
Publisher:	Monkfish Book Publishing Company
Publication date:	04/12/2022
Pages:	248
Sales rank:	609,443
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Sarah Bowen is an animal chaplain and advocate for all creatures. She offers workshops on interspecies mindfulness practices, works with humans around animal grief/loss, and advocates for exploited and endangered species within both religious and secular contexts. You can often find her huddled over wildlife struck by cars, giving them a sacred sendoff. Bowen is also a cofounder of Compassion Consortium, the first interfaith, interspiritual, and interspecies faith community, an academic dean at One Spirit Interfaith Seminary; a columnist on animal/human relationships for Spirituality & Health magazine; and the author of two award-winning books on modern spirituality, including Spiritual Rebel. Her work has also appeared in Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, Elephant Journal, mindbodygreen, and on a wide range of podcasts. She holds a BA in Human Ecology, MA in Religious Studies, and is joyfully engaged in postgraduate research in Humane Religious Studies and Anthrozoology.

Table of Contents

Him 1

Our Dearly Beloved 4

An Inconsistent Truth 7

Pondering Animality 11

Sacred Sendoffs 36

Companioning Animals 49

Expanding Creaturely Compassion 94

Free-Living, Wild Beings 103

Not Quite Wildlife 127

Farmed and Corporate Animals 142

Trying to Heal the Planet 181

Afterword: Living Beyond Our Lives 191

Acknowledgments 197

Bibliography 199

Notes 219

About the Author 239

Editorial Reviews

"If there is one book you choose to read about how to enjoy and improve your relationships with animals and fully appreciate who they truly are, this is the one." ― Marc Beckoff, author of The Emotional Lives of Animals and other books; professor emeritus of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder

“Bowen covers a great deal of ground here, creating a new paradigm for thinking about the way we treat our closest companions and fellow beings. And she offers hope for the future, reminding us that learning to value animals in life and death may be the first step toward saving our beloved planet.” ― Book Review, Spirituality & Health Magazine

“With humour and grace, animal chaplain Sarah Bowen shares her invaluable insight and advice on pet loss, animal welfare, and environmental issues.” ─ A Modern Dog Magazine Book Club Pick

“This book is a gift to all human animals seeking to live more reverently and lovingly within the larger web of life." ― Cody J. Sanders, Chaplain at Harvard University& Advisor in the Office of Religious, Spiritual, & Ethical Life, MIT

“A seminal exploration of death rituals for nonhuman animals, offering many helpful resources for their human companions.”  ― Lisa Levinson, Director of In Defense of Animals' Sustainable Activism Campaign

“Sarah Bowen’s magnificent manifesto Sacred Sendoffs is a call to acknowledge the divine Aliveness manifesting as our animal companions. If you befriend animals, read this book. If you don’t, read this book anyway and you will.” ― Rabbi Rami, author of Perennial Wisdom for the Spiritually Independent

“After reading Sacred Sendoffs, I find myself living in a more amazing world, populated by a diverse array of unique individuals, each deserving of respect and care.” ― Victoria Moran, author of Creating a Charmed Life and The Good Karma Diet

“Sarah Bowen has made a major contribution to recognitions and support for us humans seeing animals, whether wild or domesticated, as beings related to us in a very intimate, special, and interconnected way. She inspires us to honor these animal beings as kin, much like how Native Americans will refer to animals as “animal people.” Adopting this point of view alters the relationship with them and affords greater love and respect. In particular Ms. Bowen offers suggestions how we can deal with an animal’s death, whether a beloved pet or a wild animal you happen upon. This book will inspire you such that you will never look at animals in the same again!" ― Steven D. Farmer, author of Earth Magic and other books

“If we heed Bowen’s teachings, perhaps animals will help us become more nonviolent toward one another―and teach us how to be human.” ― Rev. John Dear, author of The Nonviolent Life, Living Peace, and other books, and executive director of www.beatitudescenter.org

“Sarah Bowen is back, and with the characteristic humor and intelligence that marked Spiritual Rebel, she asks us to consider the more-than-human world. In crisp, clever language, she presents an elegant manifesto for improving life―and death―for all beings on sacred Mother Earth.  ― Barbara Becker, author of Heartwood: The Art of Living with the End in Mind

“Sacred Sendoffs articulates the case for extending to all living beings the compassion, empathy, and reverence that resides at the core of all religions and wisdom traditions. Her approach is not to preach, scold, or admonish, but instead to pose questions that inspire thoughtful and honest answers. I am certain that the reader, and the world, will be in a better place from these inquiries.” ― William Melton, Co-Founder of the Compassion Consortium

“Sacred Sendoffs is an uplifting spiritual masterpiece. With blessings on every page, this is one of those books we will all keep close at hand to read again and again.” ― Judy Carman, author of Peace to All Beings and co-chair of the Interfaith Vegan Coalition 

“Bowen is a champion of the animal world, and this is definitely a worthy read for those of us who care deeply about our fellow creatures.” ― Hippocampus

From the Publisher