Grief Reaction and Care Associated with Pet Loss in Japan

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  • Kimura Yuya
    Department of Healthcare Systems Research, Graduate School of Medicine, Hokkaido University

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  • ペットロスに伴う悲嘆反応とその支援のあり方
  • ペットロス ニ トモナウ ヒタン ハンノウ ト ソノ シエン ノ アリカタ

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Abstract

A pet has a played significant role as a member of the owner's family in recent years. It is known that the loss of a loved pet could bring its owner severe grief. However, this reaction has not gained enough attention. The description about grief reaction and care was reviewed in accordance with past literatures. Loss of a pet is one of the object losses. The pet owners suffer grief at the loss of the pet. It is just as traumatic as the relatives who died. They could experience various negative feelings and sorely somaticize in the process. When they reached to pathologic grief, some kinds of expert interventions were useful in treating these symptoms. In cases of pet loss, care providers should pay enough attention to treatment because of some features different from human death. First, in veterinary practice, owners have choice to euthanize their pets. It sometimes results in a pang of guilt, while humane euthanasia puts pet away calmly. Secondly, when perceptions about pet loss are different between owner and people, this gap makes owners feel isolated. Other's unintentional words, for example "just a dog" or "you can get another pet", would result in disappointment if the lost pet was considered precious. Furthermore, a funeral ceremony that is helpful for mourning work is much less common in a dead pet. These specificities of pet loss are worthy of attention. In Japan, such a controversial pet loss has been known during the last decade. Japanese bereaved owners also seem to go through grief process as in some other countries. However, a recent report showed that some of them felt different about foreign treatments. Although several textbooks of pet loss were translated and consulted, such past recommendations could not be appropriated in Japanese. It might be because of difference between Japanese and foreign cultures. Therefore, it need to be discussed how we should support bereaved pet owners on the basis of Japanese culture. As most of candidates in the past researches were recruited via a veterinarian, counselor or bulletin board, accessible populations might be biased. In addition, participants in the past survey generally think back and answer to questions in retrospect. These selection or recall biases could lead misinterpretation of findings. For the purpose of an appropriate support, the best-unbiased research for evaluating grief derived from pet loss is required. And then a prospective longitudinal survey is also needed in order to evaluate the result of interventions.

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