Your sentiments are good but let's look at this situation.
"there are many elderly people to whom thier pets are nearly the sole source of companionship in their lives."
1st off, while technically these were "elderly", they were not SERIOUSLY elderly! I don't know how poorly off they were in physical terms, but if as I suspect, they weren't bad (after all, they held a banquet for friends). The people you're thinking of are often severely constrained by advanced age, to the point of being "shut-ins" who indeed would be lonely.
2nd, this was a COUPLE, not 1 person. They had EACH OTHER. If not the friends and neighbors they had at their funeral banquet.
I don't think anyone was "condemning PETS". Many are "condemning" the people for going overboard, killing themselves. I feel sorry for them, but the truth is, it IS overboard.
Back to the elderly thing - for truly elderly - I don't think many deliberately kill themselves. But they do go downhill from depression. My grandmother after her husband died (+ he had Alzheimer's and had mostly been in "homes" for the last few years) still had her beloved Tinkerbell cat. She wasn't that old at that point (maybe 10?) but 1 day Tinkerbell disappeared and never came back. It wasn't too long after that gramma had some accident by herself in her home (my cousin found her with a gash in her leg; my aunt and uncle - RN and MD - lived next door), and went into coma. My uncle and aunt personally took care of her in their house but she died within 3 mos.
Even my mother - her daughter - thinks Tinkerbell disappearing was the last straw for her.
Thanks, that was a very thoughtful response you wrote...I did notice that you are a "child of the eighties"...which is a good thing to be, I think.
I think they "went overboard", but...I wasn't in their shoes. Depression can make people do terrible things, it is very powerful, and not logical. It is emotional.
I could not imagine what depth of feeling they had for that pet that would cause both of them to kill themselves concurrently. But they did. And as I said to another poster, age has two components, mind and body.
I have known 85 year old men who had the outlook of a young boy, and 21 year old men who had the outlook of an old 85 year old. Bottom line: if you FEEL like an old person, that's what you will be. One cannot escape the physical aging process, but whether or not you let it define you is up to you.
These people sound like they let the aging process define them.