Interesting. I also think that people are so affected by pet deaths because they are not only perceived as 'innocent' - as are children - but because they in some ways more helpless than a child (depending on the child's age, of course.) They cannot scream for help, start crying or tell someone something's going on at home. They do all of these things of course, in their own ways, but unless you are tuned in to animal body language you can miss it. And with everything else going on in a horror story, unless you make the animal's mute cries for help as explicit as its death, they are going to go unnoticed anyway. Mirroring reality, sadly. I enjoyed this article, food for thought. Thanks.
Interesting. I also think that people are so affected by pet deaths because they are not only perceived as 'innocent' - as are children - but because they in some ways more helpless than a child (depending on the child's age, of course.) They cannot scream for help, start crying or tell someone something's going on at home. They do all of these things of course, in their own ways, but unless you are tuned in to animal body language you can miss it. And with everything else going on in a horror story, unless you make the animal's mute cries for help as explicit as its death, they are going to go unnoticed anyway. Mirroring reality, sadly. I enjoyed this article, food for thought. Thanks.
Hey, thanks for reading! I think you're onto something for sure there. The deck is just so stacked against an animal's suffering!