The Last Walk: Reflections on Our Pets at the End of Their Lives

“Should be required reading for every pet owner. Readers will identify with Pierce’s feelings of ambivalence…as they read about Ody’s antics and challenges.”—Library Journal

Watching our beloved animals grow older is never easy. This book, by a bioethicist who recounts the moving story of her dog Ody’s final year, also presents an in-depth exploration of the practical, medical, and moral issues that pet owners confront with the decline of their companion animals.

Combining heart-wrenching personal stories, interviews, and scientific research to consider a wide range of questions about animal aging, end-of-life care, and death, Jessica Pierce tackles such vexing questions as whether animals are aware of death, whether they're feeling pain, and if and when euthanasia is appropriate. Given what we know and can learn, how should we best honor the lives of our pets, both while they live and after they have left us? The product of a lifetime of loving pets, studying philosophy, and collaborating with scientists at the forefront of the study of animal behavior and cognition, The Last Walk asks—and answers—the toughest questions pet owners face.

“Using her experience caring for her elderly Vizsla as a springboard, Pierce, who is a bioethicist, explores the evolution of North American attitudes toward pets and their demise, while delving as deeply as she can into her own feelings as her dog Ody goes into decline.”—Globe and Mail

“With her beautiful ‘Ody's journal’ passages, Jessica Pierce made me feel close to her beloved and high-maintenance old dog. It was through Ody’s challenges, and Pierce's on his behalf, that I came to grapple in important new ways with issues of pet aging and death. This book is revolutionary, and I loved it with all my heart.”—Barbara J. King, author of Being with Animals

© 2012 The University of Chicago Press (Ebook): 9780226922041

Release date

Ebook: 24 September 2012