Grieving couple commit suicide after pet dog dies

[PhilipShore]

Source: Reuters India

HYDERABAD, India (Reuters) - Unable to come to terms with the death of their pet dog, an elderly couple in Andhra Pradesh committed suicide by hanging themselves, police said on Monday.

The bodies of 67-year-old retired soldier C.N. Madanraj and his wife, Tarabai, 63, were found on Sunday in their home in a suburb of Hyderabad.

Police said the childless couple had held a burial ceremony for their dog of 13 years, called "Puppy", and hosted a feast for friends before hanging themselves in their bedroom.

"The couple described the grief over their pet dog in the suicide note they left on March 29," said police inspector V. Anantaiah.

Read more: http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=entertainmentNews&storyID=2007-04-02T112013Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-292928-1.xml

[Behind the Aegis]

1. How incredibly sad!

[keopeli]

2. 63 and 67 is not elderly in my book. This was a couple with many years of life left. Tragic.

But, who knows. Maybe in their community in India they were elderly.

Peace.

[xchrom]

3. so very sad.

but it only underscores how much animals are family for many, many people.

[xultar]

4. Sad...but I can understand. When my Chihuahua Megabyte passed away

I didn't think I'd make it. He's been gone for 4 years and I still tear up when I think of him.

RIP Madanraj and Tarabai.

[Omphaloskepsis]

5. They are fucking insane..

Really, that is crazy. Imagine if they had lost a 13 year old kid. And I know people love pets, but seriously, my sisters kid can get over her cat getting hit by a car.

[LostinVA]

6. They DID lose a 13-year-old kid

I think that's the point.

I won't kill myself when my furbaby Punkers dies in a few years (:cry:), but I'm quite sure I'll be needing some grief counseling.

[Omphaloskepsis]

8. I could understand if it was a old guy without a wife.. Or vice versa.

But a married couple doing this together? Batshitinsane. They still had each other.

[LostinVA]

9. Grief can make people mad, or desperate

[youthere]

15. There's got to be more to this story. People in their sixties know that pets die...

I don't doubt their grief is genuine, but suicide?

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

11. You said the magic words ...

... "I won't kill myself"

Grief, sure. Sorrow, yes. Need a shoulder to cry on, absolutely.

But you got the right perspective.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

7. Sad that they saw no alternative

Pet lovers in their sixties should know that pets die. And they should know the expected life span of pets.

Yes, it's sad and you can feel emotional about a long-gone pet (like xultar's Megabyte). But suicide? There had to be something else, something more, or something missing.

[crim son]

10. I agaree with you. People lose their beloved spouses or children

and manage to hang on. There is more to this story.

[SPKrazy]

24. Gotta Be

surely?

:shrug:

[bigwillq]

12. How sad.

:( :cry:

[Stuckinthebush]

13. Whoa! That's some serious untreated mental illness

To kill yourself after a pet dies points to mental illness. To have a suicide pact with your spouse because your 13 year old pet dies goes to an extreme and is indicative of serious mental illness. Depression is hell, yes. Situational depression is considered to be mental illness too. But my god. The dog had a long life for dogs. Surely they knew that his time was coming to an end.

Imagine sitting with your spouse and seriously discussing hanging yourself together because Scruffy died of old age. It baffles the mind. I love my cats dearly, and have buried quite a few with major tears and depression...but suicide?

Whoa.

[PhilipShore]

18. Mental Illness is a myth

I have traveled to India, I was amazed at how much the Indian people love animals. They were everywhere. Lots of Indians are vegetarians, I think because they see some animals as being Godlike.

While I of course think its wrong to commit suicide over an animal -- I would not assume it was a mental illness as the factor.

[Stuckinthebush]

19. Uh oh...better not tell my psychiatrist wife!

She'll be out of a job. All those schizophrenics and psychotic individuals she treats must be crazy to think they are crazy!

Depression is considered a mental illness. I'd say that depression was the probable cause of this event.

[Skittles]

20. thank you

lord I get tired of people thinking the last thing that happened to a person is why they committed suicide - more likley they waited for their pet to die before they did what they had been thinking about for a long, long time

[Stuckinthebush]

22. Indeed, indeed Skittles

By the way...hope you are well. It is always nice to see the DU old timers now and again!

[Skittles]

23. oh I am fine

people sometimes think I don't post much but I do post every day, it's just I work some strange hours :hi:

[begin_within]

14. They dishonored their pet.

I believe the dog would have wanted them to be happy and continue on living.

[zappa_parappa]

16. I don't see this as terribly crazy or sad, it might be what they wanted

maybe they were just two people who didn't want to grow too old, had an animal they were taking care of, and decided that with the death of that animal, they had no further responsibilities on this earth, and that it was time to go. Or maybe they were just nuts, who knows.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

17. i think so too

[Lydia Leftcoast]

21. Yes, I once had an acquaintance who committed suicide

a few months after her mother died.

I could tell that she was depressed, although I had no idea how seriously, and I believe that it was not grief over her mother's death that drove her to suicide, but the feeling that now no one would miss her.