Building on the momentum of public outreach for anthropological work, a NYT Opinion article on mourning pets (UofI library link) references Anthropology Professor, Jane Desmond's work on the contested practices of writing pet lives into the historical record though pet obituaries.

The article's author, Dr. Alexandra Horowitz, quotes from Professor Desmond's book "Displaying Death and Animating Life: Human-Animal Relations in Art, Science, and Everyday Life." In the quoted section, Professor Desmond writes her reflections from the 2008 meeting of the International Association of Obituarists, where award-winning obituarist Kay Powell declared: “Obits are for people. Pets are animals. Period.”