It was a much smaller box than I had expected. After being assured that everything was inside the box, I choked back tears until I got to the car. As much as I had wanted to know the exact cause of death, I sat there holding the box and asking myself, Was this really necessary? Was it worth the desecration of her body?
Autopsies are routine for us, but this one was different. She was not a foster rabbit but one of our own. Although l will continue to advise you to the contrary, I can better sympathize now with your reluctance to request this service. Grief can be very impractical.
You may want to stop medical testing on animals. Yet when your own is in need, you want the best in veterinary medicine. Other animals have been sacrificed for this purpose. An autopsy means that your rabbit, who never saw the inside of a research lab while alive, may in death help another.
We need a broader meaning than a lifeless body. Maybe you remember living in a certain house during a particularly happy period of your life. You remember events and those who shared them. As you savor your fond memories of those happy times, is it really the house you remember or the dwellers of the house?
We’re grateful to and have respect for the bodies that once housed our companions. But what can be a greater memorial to their former occupants than a gift to that body of information that will help save the living?
