Guy Winch, psychologist, speaker and author, addresses pet loss and the grief it can cause animal owners. Animal health pros will recognize the context and may find comfort knowing that human issues are being recognized.
Source: Scientific American, May 22, 2018. Link.
While grief over the loss of a cherished pet may be as intense and even as lengthy as when a significant person in our life dies, our process of mourning is quite different. Because pet loss is disenfranchised, many of the societal mechanisms of social and community support are absent when a cherished pet dies.
Studies have found that social support is a crucial ingredient in recovering from grief of all kinds. Thus, we are not only robbed of crucial support systems when our pet dies, but our own perceptions of our emotional responses are likely to add an additional layer of emotional distress.