Companion animals grieve the loss of their human caregivers, and understanding and supporting this grief is an important welfare consideration in rehoming and end-of-life planning.
Companion animals who lose their primary human caregivers experience genuine grief that is too often unrecognised in end-of-life and estate planning. Dogs that spent years in close daily contact with an owner who dies face the combined challenge of grief and adjustment to a new home simultaneously. For elderly animals, this disruption can be physically as well as psychologically harmful. Animals surrendered to shelters following owner death face an additional layer of environmental unfamiliarity that compounds their grief. Estate planning that designates a trusted person or organisation to take responsibility for companion animals, combined with gradual transition plans for rehoming, significantly improves welfare outcomes for animals who outlive their owners.