Why the death of a pet can be as traumatic as losing a loved one

Grieving over a pet can be just as painful as mourning a human family member, new research has shown.

The study by the academic journal PLOS One suggests guidelines on severe grief should be changed to reflect the feelings of loss that people can feel when a pet dies.

The research found it is possible for pet owners to suffer from a mental health condition known as prolonged grief disorder (PGD), a condition which follows the death of a loved one and can last for months or years.

The symptoms include intense longing for the deceased, despair, trouble socialising and continuing with everyday life.

PGD diagnoses are currently only recognised for human deaths, but the author of this study has called for it to be extended to pets too, after he found people can experience clinically significant levels of the disorder due to pet bereavement.

The study surveyed 975 adults in the UK and found almost one in three had experienced the death of a pet. Out of those who had lost pets, 7.5 per cent of people fitted the criteria for PGD. This almost matches the proportion of people who have lost a close friend (7.8 per cent).

It found that 8.3 per cent of people experience PGD following the death of a grandparent, with the statistics changing to 8.9 per cent for a sibling and 9.1 per cent for a partner.

Those who had lost parents (11.2 per cent) or children (21.3 per cent) exhibited the highest rates of the disorder.

Around a fifth of people who had experienced both pet and human loss said losing a pet was worse.

The study estimated that one in 12 cases of PGD in the UK were caused by the death of a pet, despite only around half of adults having pets and animals generally having shorter lifespans than humans.

Philip Hyland, the author of the study from Maynooth University, said: “These findings provide consistent and compelling evidence that people can experience clinically relevant levels of PGD following the death of a pet.”

He added: “The decision to exclude pet loss from the bereavement criterion for PGD can be viewed as not only scientifically misguided, but also as callous.”