Vet emphasizes why it's extremely important for a person to grieve the loss of their pet

The bond between humans and their pets is a profound and unspoken connection. Pets offer people truly unconditional love and support. But pets have a limited lifespan and their deaths can have a very big impact on the people who love them. For many, the death of a pet is almost equivalent to losing a close member of the family. Vet Andrew Jones shared a video on TikTok where he highlighted how important it is for people to take time to grieve properly for their pet after they pass away.

The video has got 17.5K likes and 640 comments on the site. Jones begins the video by looking into the camera and saying, "Having a pet die can be emotionally devastating." He then goes on to highlight how humans as a society fail to acknowledge its emotional impact on an individual. The death of a pet is not being taken as seriously as it should be. The vet shares that he had to euthanize his cat, Murray, a few months ago.

He reflects on this loss, saying, "I don't feel totally normal yet." Jones points out how people who have had their pets die will know how hard it is to cope with the loss. He says, "If a family member dies, you're given time off work; there are funeral services. Society recognizes that." On the other hand, whenever a pet dies, it is not given as much importance and people are not given the time to grieve. The man concludes the video by pointing out how it is easier to deal with grief when it is acknowledged and how it is time for things to change.

People agreed with the vet's views and shared their opinions about experiencing a pet's loss in the comments section. @lolnihearga said, "We lost our golden 5 days ago. 13 years of friendship and love gone in an instant. I'm so numb." @cassiekins commented, "I lost my cat Millie back in May. She was with us for 18 years and made every day magical. Life will never be the same without her." @kendraabrown shared, "My dog just passed away yesterday. This is exactly what I needed to see."

The inability of modern workplaces to address the grief associated with losing a pet is really problematic. A year back, a report titled "Overcoming the social stigma of losing a pet: Considerations for counseling professionals" was written by Dr. Michelle Kay Crossley, an assistant professor at Rhode Island College and Collen Roland, president and Pet Loss Grief Specialist for the Association for Pet Loss and Bereavement, as reported by My Modern Met. The report highlights the importance of recognizing how serious the loss of a pet was to people.

It states, "While empathy may come more naturally when discussing human loss, there are other types of loss that are not acknowledged or given a similar amount of attention by society. Grief due to these socially unendorsed losses is referred to as disenfranchised grief and can include death by suicide, a lost pregnancy/miscarriage, and death from AIDS, in addition to the death of a pet." This highlights how undermined this form of grief is and how it needs to be given proper attention in the coming years.