Psychological Sequelae of Pet Loss Following Hurricane Katrina

Abstract

One of the many impacts of natural disasters on the well-being of the humans who experience them is enforced abandonment and loss of companion animals. Hurricane Katrina, which struck the gulf coast of the United States in late August, 2005, was such a disaster. This study assessed the psychological effects of pet loss on survivors of Hurricane Katrina. Sixty-five predominantly white, female, middle-aged pet owners who lived in affected regions of the country completed online questionnaires, assessing symptoms of depression, acute stress, peri-traumatic dissociation, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Almost all companion animals were cats or dogs. Pet loss was strongly associated with psychopathology across all measures, even when controlling for displacement from the home (Wilks' Lambda F(4,57) = 5.22, p = 0.001). The impact of pet loss on PTSD was mediated by acute stress and dissociative symptoms during the evacuation (both F(1,61) > 9.3, both p < 0.01). This suggests that forced abandonment of a companion animal during an evacuation adds considerably to the acute trauma, thereby increasing the risk of long-term PTSD. The impact of pet loss on depressive symptoms, however, was independent of acute stress and dissociation (F(1,31) = 15.03, p = 0.001), suggesting that it is both the acute loss of the pet as well as the continued absence of the pet itself that contributes to depressive symptom severity.