Study by Kildare university finds death of a pet can be as intense as loss of a person

A study by a Kildare university has found that grief following the death of a pet can be as deep and as distressing as that for a person.

New research by Prof Philip Hyland of Maynooth University’s Department of Psychology found that 93% of people who experienced the death of a pet had also experienced the death of a person.

When asked to identify the bereavement that caused them the most distress, more than one-in-five or 21% of these people chose the death of a pet.

The study, titled No pets allowed: Evidence that prolonged grief disorder can occur following the death of a pet, found that people can experience clinically significant levels of prolonged grief disorder (PGD) following the death of a pet.

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PGD has been defined by two ‘core’ symptoms -- longing for the deceased and preoccupation with the deceased -- and a set of ‘associated’ symptoms including intense emotional pain, feelings of guilt or sorrow and difficulty accepting the death.

Published in PLOS One, the research was based on a survey of 975 adults in the UK and showed that 7.5% of people who had lost pets met the diagnostic criteria for PGD.

This was about the same as the proportion of people who have had a close friend die (7.8%), a family member such as a grandparent (8.3%), a sibling (8.9%), and even a partner (9.1%). Only the death of a parent (11.2%), and in particular, the death of a child (21.3%) were markedly higher.

Study author Prof Hyland notes that despite considerable evidence that people form strong attachments to their pets, and experience high levels of grief following their death, the current guidelines do not allow PGD to be diagnosed following the death of a pet.

“If people can develop clinically significant levels of grief following the death of a pet, then it is essential that this is recognised in the scientific literature so that mental health professionals can communicate with the public in an appropriate and accurate manner, and people who need, and desire, clinical care are afforded the opportunity to access it,” he says.

Prof Hyland believes that the PGD guidelines should be expanded to include pets as well as humans: "Considered in light of evidence that people view grief related to the death of a pet as less legitimate than grief related to the death of a person and that many people grieving the loss of their pet feel embarrassed and isolated as a result, the decision to exclude pet loss from the bereavement criterion for PGD can be viewed as not only scientifically misguided, but also as callous.”