Above: Messages of loss and recognition were written on seed cards providing a link to the future.
By Kath Gannaway
HUNDREDS of trees will provide a lasting memory of pets and wildlife that perished in the February bushfires.
An estimated 600 people attended the Animal Remembrance Day organised by the RSPCA and held at Rochford Winery on Sunday, 26 April.
Event organiser Sarah Somers said many wrote messages on seed cards which will be planted out in areas affected by the bushfires to provide habitat and feed for animals in these regions.
Ms Somers said the time was right for people to come together to remember beloved pets and to recognise the loss of wildlife and habitat. “People needed to acknowledge the loss of their animals and recognised the need to go through that grieving process in the same way we do for people,” Ms Somers said.
“It was a very touching and very emotional time. A word a lot of people used was ‘cathartic’,” she said.
“A lot of people walked in feeling a certain way but walked out feeling that in acknowledging their loss they had started to be able to start to rebuild themselves. That it was not about just about rebuilding their house or their community, but about rebuilding themselves,” she said.
The RSPCA is continuing to offer support for all creatures, great and small, affected by the bushfires. Phone 9224 2222.
