Why Should We Grieve the Death of a Wild Animal?

Source: Krystine I. Batcho

“The bird was dead when the children found it.” So begins the 1938 picture book, The Dead Bird, for young children by Margaret Wise Brown. Brown understood the significance of a young child’s early experience with death. She knew that death would arouse not only questions, but also feelings in preschoolers. So in her picture book she focused on the children’s feelings in their encounter with the dead bird: “The children were very sorry the bird was dead and could never fly again. But they were glad they had found it, because now they could dig a grave in the woods and bury it.” Their makeshift funeral allows them to vent their emotion: “Then they cried because their singing was so beautiful and the ferns smelled so sweetly and the bird was dead.”

Recently, research on the psychology of the human-animal bond and the psychological impact of the death of an animal has begun to accumulate. Research suggests that some animals serve not only practical but also important social-emotional needs. Service animals enhance quality of life by assisting people with daily tasks and helping them attain goals and enjoy experiences once deemed impossible. Service dogs help those with impaired vision navigate independently, and therapy horses give children with physical challenges the experience of rhythmic freedom of movement astride. Research has documented also the benefits of companion animals who provide emotional comfort, unconditional acceptance, and loyalty and promote healthy behaviors. It is not surprising, then, that the death of a service or companion animal can entail the grief of loss and separation similar to our response to the death of a loved one. In fact, many people consider their companion animal to be part of their family and enjoy an owner-pet relationship that parallels in many ways human relationships.

How a person copes with the death of a loved pet depends in part upon the depth of the bond and the social support available to the owner. Many people mourn the death of a loved pet as they do the loss of a loved one. When a pet dies, however, the owner is often reluctant to disclose the depth of their grief with others for fear of not being taken seriously. Although they listen, people might suggest directly or imply more subtly that it was after all just an animal. Without intending to be insensitive, they might suggest a replacement pet to ease the emotional pain of loss and to help the owner get over their grief. An owner who had relied on the pet for primary or sole companionship can experience a period of profound loneliness when the animal dies. As pet ownership continues to increase, research has begun to identify effective strategies for coping with grief and achieving personal growth after the loss. Social media has provided opportunities for sharing in online support groups and for memorializing a beloved pet.

Not yet studied empirically, however, is the impact of coming upon a dead wild animal. Upon finding a fallen bird in the garden or discovering a dead squirrel, raccoon or rabbit on a woodland walk, some people might simply move on, while others might pause to reflect. Is it possible to mourn the death of a wild animal despite no prior acquaintance or relationship? Paraphrasing the psychiatrist Colin Murray Parkes, grief is the price we all pay for love. Would anyone grieve the death of an animal they had never known, much less loved? And yet some people do feel sad encountering an animal who seemingly died without witness, ceremony, or support. Sorrow for such a commonplace death with no connection to us reveals important dimensions of our emotions. The death of a close relative or friend entails the complex loss not only of a person we admired and loved, but also the end of a meaningful relationship. The death of a pet represents the loss of an animal we cared for and who had given us unconditional acceptance, comfort, and companionship. The death of a wild animal doesn’t deprive us of anything. The animal had given us nothing and had taken nothing from us in return.

Grief for such an animal might be considered one of the purest experiences of compassion, based only on the sense that an innocent life has ended. It reminds us of the importance of our relationships, the give-and-take that lends meaning to our lives. We know that an animal in the wild is inherently incapable of human expectations and emotions. But we might wish anyway that we could extend the comforts of social bonds we enjoy to this one animal we have discovered. It is as if our discovery constitutes an encounter that reminds us of the interconnectedness of life. In any case, our wish that we could share the best of being human reveals our capacity to care altruistically without expectation of anything in return.

Sensing that others couldn’t understand our feelings, sadness at a wildlife death might be one of those special private events that remind us of our struggle to be truly connected with others while remaining our authentic individual selves. Private experiences that defy sharing can deepen our ability to explore and appreciate our interior life. Such opportunities have become rare in our hectic lives immersed in responsibilities and constant communications online and off.

Coming upon the death in the wild can engage us in confronting the universality and inevitability of death. Our sorrow at the sight of the lonely death might stem from our sense that even the presence of others cannot change the reality that dying is a solitary experience. At the same time, the very universality of death means that no one really dies alone.