Losing a Pet Can Be Just as Devastating as Losing a Family Member, Survey Finds

Anyone who has had to say goodbye to a pet knows that the experience is heartbreaking — and that the depths of their grief can often be misunderstood or diminished. A new study published in PLOS One proves that losing a pet can be just as devastating as losing a family member, and that pet parents can suffer from prolonged grief disorder (also known as PGD). 

PGD is marked by extreme grief after losing a loved one that lingers for over a year. Right now, it can only be officially diagnosed after the loss of a human companion. A team of researchers led by Maynooth University’s Dr. Philip Hyland sought to prove that the grief people feel over the deaths of their pets can be just as chronic as the grief felt over the loss of a human.

The team surveyed 975 adults in the UK and found that 7.5 percent of people who had lost their pets met the diagnostic criteria for PGD; that’s roughly the same proportion of people who meet the traditional diagnosis for PGD after losing a close human friend. It’s only slightly behind the percentage of those who experienced PGD after the death of a grandparent (8.3 percent), sibling (8.9 percent), or partner (9.1 percent). In fact, the only cases in which the rates of PGD diagnosis were markedly higher were after the loss of a parent (11.2 percent) and loss of a child (21.3 percent). 

Further analysis revealed that the PGD symptoms expressed in both cases (losing a pet and losing a human loved one) were identical. 

“The diagnostic manuals say this type of intense, relentless grief is not possible after the loss of a pet,” Dr. Hyland told The Times. “But this work suggests that PGD can manifest in the same way, whether you have lost a pet or a person.”

Additionally, about a fifth of the people surveyed who had experienced both the loss of a pet and the loss of a human said that the former grief was more difficult. “For many people the loss of a pet is perceived to be worse than the loss of a person,” Dr. Hyland wrote. “This is consistent with the existing evidence that people form close emotional bonds with their pets.”

The researchers noted that the sample size was limited. They also pointed out that cause of death can influence the risk of PGD and pet parents are often put in challenging positions, including deciding whether or not to euthanize an animal. That added stress may have a factor in the grieving process.

Ultimately, though, the researchers concluded that people who have lost pets can meet the requirements for a PGD diagnosis — yet be ineligible for an official diagnosis, simply because their loved one was not human. “The decision to exclude pet loss from the bereavement criterion for PGD can be viewed as not only scientifically misguided but also as callous,” Dr. Hyland concluded.