For some, losing a pet is more distressing than losing a relative

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2026-01-15 06:00

International

What does this mean?

Jump to: MultimediaAttachmentsExpert Reaction

An Irish scientist surveyed 975 people in the UK, around a third of whom had experienced the death of a pet and nearly all of whom had experienced the death of a person, and found around one in five said the death of their pet was more distressing. The researcher says about one in 13 of those who had lost a pet experienced prolonged grief disorder (PGD), a similar rate to those who have lost a person. He calculated that around one in 12 cases of PGD in the general population may be the result of losing a pet. However, he says PGD is not generally diagnosed by doctors when the patient has lost a pet rather than a person, which could be viewed as "not only scientifically misguided, but also as callous". Pet loss should no longer be excluded from the bereavement criterion for PGD, he concludes.