Don’t Apologize for Grieving Your Pet

Where the Red Fern Mourns: If you’ve ever downplayed your grief over losing a pet, new research says you shouldn’t. For a long time, Western culture has treated pet loss as somehow “less legitimate” than losing a person. However, according to a study published in PLOS One, that assumption could be dead wrong.

The Study: Researchers surveyed 975 UK adults about their experiences with loss and found that 7.5% of people who lost a pet met diagnostic criteria for prolonged grief disorder (PGD), a condition involving intense despair and trouble functioning that lasts months or years. That rate nearly matched that of losing a close friend (7.8%) and trailed only slightly behind losing a grandparent (8.3%), sibling (8.9%), or partner (9.1%). Only the loss of a parent (11.2%) or child (21.3%) ranked significantly higher. Plus, one in five people who’d lost both a pet and a person in their life said the pet’s death hit harder.

The Takeaway: You’re not overreacting if you’re grieving a pet. The pain is real and deserves the same grace you’d grant for any other loss.

Keep In Mind: This was one UK study, so replication across different cultures would strengthen the findings.