Awareness of death in non-human animals (Part 2)

In this second part we expand the range of animal species that have been shown to exhibit unique behaviors after the death of a relative or companion. In these new cases we will see how both domestic and wild animals react surprisingly to death. More examples which suggest that the human being is not the only living being conscious of death and the only one who can feel pain towards it.

In the previous post we established the four components necessary to understand death that are applied to adult humans: inevitability, irreversibility, non-functionality and causality. Meanwhile, an animal’s response to death involves any behaviour made by an individual after the death of a companion, and scientists distinguish it from grief, where various conditions have to be given. Firstly, two or more animals choose to spend time together. Secondly, after the death of a relative, friend, or companion, the behavior exhibited by the survivor(s) is different from the normal behavior exhibited before the death. The key criteria for this type of behaviour are the significant alterations in social behaviour, diet, sleep and/or expressions of emotional affection and such alterations must persist for hours, days or weeks.

In the first part of this post we described a series of documented cases in various species of non-human primates (chimpanzees, gorillas, macaques…), dolphins and elephants, in which individuals reacted surprisingly to the death of their congeners. Here we expose new cases of behaviour towards death to complete the examples we gave in the previous post. Although it is true that in the first post we only exemplify cases of wild mammals, in this case we will talk about domestic animals and other groups of vertebrates in which certain aspects of these behaviors can be glimpsed.

Dogs

There are many cases in which our beloved pets have manifested sadness when they have lost a human companion or one of their same species. One example is Greyfriars Bobby. This is how the most famous dog in Edinburgh (Scotland) is known, who remained 14 years at the grave of his owner, John Gray. John was a gardener who emigrated to Edinburgh around 1850 with his family, hoping to improve their life quality. Due to soil damage caused by the long duration of low temperatures, John abandoned his gardening profession and joined the local police force as a night watchman. When the family adopted Bobby years later, it accompanied John through the streets of the city every night while he was working. Unfortunately, John died years later, in 1858, of tuberculosis, but Bobby did not separate from his friend’s grave. The man in charge of the Greyfriars cemetery where John was buried, decided to build a shelter for Bobby, as it did not move away from the tomb despite inclement weather. Even citizens guided and fed it. Bobby frequented the restaurant Greyfriars Place every day (it had gone to this restaurant with its friend John for years) and, after receiving the food, quickly returned to the cemetery. But the citizens’ demonstration of affection for the dog does not end here. In 1867 the mayor of the city, Sir William Chambers, registered the dog and paid his license as it had no recognized owner, declaring Bobby a pet of the City Council, since it was approved a law that forced to register all the dogs of the city due to the great increase of street dogs. Bobby died in 1872, with 16 years, next to the tomb of its friend John. This is the reason why the animal has been known as Greyfriars Bobby. A year after its death a fountain with a statue of the famous dog was built, which has become an important tourist spot. This amazing story is another example of the great loyalty of dogs to their fellow humans. Even films like Greyfriars Bobby (1961) and The Adventures of Greyfriars Bobby (2006) have been made about this story.

However, Bobby’s fame is overshadowed by the story of another dog that is practically part of the universal culture. Hachiko was the name of an Akita dog who became famous worldwide due to the film Hachi: A Dog’s Tale (2009), starring Richard Gere. Hachiko was born in 1923 and it was the companion dog of Hidesaburo Ueno, a professor of agronomic engineering at the University of Tokyo. Every morning the dog accompanied its owner to the train station, then returned home alone and at sunset it came back to meet his owner. Nevertheless, one day Hidesaburo did not return. On May 21, 1925, the professor died while he was in class. However, Hachiko continued to wait for him at the station every day for 9 years, until it died in 1935, apparently from brain cancer and filariasis (a parasitic disease), as revealed by the necropsies made on its dissected body years later. As with the previous case, this moving relationship touched the citizens, who took care of the dog and fed it every day. Hachiko became known as “the faithful dog” and in his memory, in 1934, they built a statue of the dog at the station where he waited every day. There is also another statue at another train station, near the place where Hachiko was born, and a monolith with the dog’s name was built next to the professor’s grave.

Capitán is another pretty famous dog. In this case we travel to Argentina. This dog lived with Miguel Guzmán, its owner, in 2005 in Córdoba. Unfortunately, the following year Miguel died and was buried in the Carlos Paz cemetery, about 35 km from his home in Córdoba. The dog did not witness any of these events so, in theory, it did not know where Miguel’s body was. After that, Capitán left his house and came back several times until one day it never returned. The family thought that it might have been adopted by other people or might even have died, until one day, while visiting Miguel’s grave in Carlos Paz, they found the dog on it. Obviously, they were surprised by how the dog have could found the grave. And this is not trivial, because how the dog could travel 35 km and reach the exact place where its owner was buried remains a real mystery. The citizens who saw it wandering around the cemetery affirmed that at dusk it always slept at its friend’s grave. This happened for 11 years. The family tried to get the dog back with them, but they did not succeed. During the last years of its life, the dog was taken of by Fundación Protectora de Animales (FUPA). Capitán suffered from kidney problems and in February of 2018 died along with the remains of its owner.

Another example is Canelo, more famous in Spain and known as “the dog of the people from Cádiz”. In 1990, Canelo’s owner went to the Puerta del Mar Hospital to subjected to dialysis. Unfortunately, the man did not leave the hospital. That day, the dog and its owner said goodbye in the morning as usual. The dog had already accompanied him on other occasions and waited for him at the door of the hospital until the end of the treatment. Surprisingly, after the death of its friend, Canelo waited for him every day for 12 years. An environmental association, Asociación Agaden, adopted Canelo, obtaining the necessary licenses and vaccines so that the animal could continue waiting for its owner without any legal problems. Unfortunately, Canelo was run over in December 2002 while crossing the pedestrian crossing that it had crossed so many times. A pretty gesture took place in May 2004 when the village honoured Canelo and the love it felt for its owner with a plaque with its name and its body in relief in the street where the dog waited for him.

The next example was told by Isabel Martín and her husband. They had a Shih Tzu dog called Candi. Isabel and her husband worked outside the home, so Candi spent most of its time alone. To avoid this, the marriage adopted a dog male they called Gizmo. Both dogs quickly became inseparable. Sometime later the couple divorced. Isabel kept the dogs, that lived together for 14 years until Gizmo died in June 2012. Since then, Candi did not want to eat or move. The veterinarian diagnosed it with a deep depression due to the loss of its friend. The owner tried hard to make it eat, even forcing it, but the poor Candi resisted a few more months. It died in December of the same year.

Other similar reactions have been described among dogs. This is the case of Joey and Willi, two little dogs who were taken in by the journalist Steven Kotler and his wife in the canine sanctuary they run in northern New Mexico. The two dogs lived with them until their health improved and they were adopted by a friend and neighbor of the family. Tragically, a few days later Joey was run over by a drunk driver. The owner took Joey’s body to the sanctuary because he wanted to bury it there. During the preparations for the burial, Joey’s body was on the bed and Steven’s wife did not separate from it. Willi, the other puppy, climbed up to its side and sniffed its friend’s body. However, the surprise came later, as it grabbed the edge of the quilt between its jaws and covered the face of its dead companion, an act that would not be surprising if a person had done it. At first they thought it was just random, so the woman uncovered Joey’s face. However, Willi became nervous and covered Joey’s head again. But this is not the end of the story. It got late, so they waited until the next morning to bury Joey. Then, when the corpse, which was wrapped in a blanket, was moved to a chair, its head was accidentally discovered. Again, Willi got angry, got on the chair and pulled the blanket to cover its friend’s face. According to Steven, it had never seen such elaborate mourning behavior in a dog in all his years of working with these animals.

Interesting is also the testimony of Jennifer Coates, a veterinarian specialized in care of dying pets. On one occasion, while a co-worker was just about to sacrifice Zoey, one of the dogs of a family, the other two dogs of the family entered the room, stood before the body and began to howl very loudly.

This is just a small sample, but there are many more documented cases and so many others of which there is no public testimony. Let these examples serve as a manifestation of the incredible emotional capacities of our hairy companions.

Cats

Although most cats tend to be more independent and sometimes more unfriendly than dogs, this does not mean that they do not have an emotional attachment to their caretakers, owners and fellow cats. Many cases in which cats react sadly to a human loss have been documented, often manifesting anxiety and even depression. Sometimes, for example, they may stop using their sandboxes to do their business or they may stop eating, start being apathetic, meowing loudly and persistently (especially in the dark), etc.

A beautiful and sad story is that of the sisters Willa and Carson. For 14 years, these Siamese cats lived together in the home of Karen and Ron Flowe, in Virginia (USA). The sisters were very close: they played, they groomed each other, they slept intertwined… Carson required several veterinary consultations because it suffered from a chronic illness. When its owners took it to the vet, its sister Willa became very agitated until it returned. However, one day Carson’s chronic disease became worse and it died at the vet. At first Willa acted as usual when its sister was away for a few hours. But after a couple of days, it began to emit strange sounds, like a sort of cry, and went to the places it frequented most with its sister. Months later, the strange behavior disappeared, but Willa remained apathetic.