Article: Experiences of Dying Animals: Parallels With End-Of-Life Experiences in Humans.
Author(s): Rupert Sheldrake, Pam Smart, Michael Nahm.
Journal: Journal of Scientific Exploration.
Date published: March 2023
Link to full paper (pdf)

Author, and researcher Rupert Sheldrake has amassed a collection of anecdotal stories from owners of pets who died.
The stories report unusual and intriguing behaviours at the animal’s end of life that often seem to parallel end-of-life experiences seen in humans.

Our case collection is, as far as we know, the first of its kind and is necessarily limited in its scope. Most reports were received in response to a privately initiated call that was chiefly addressed to English-speaking people. We also made no attempt to verify the contents of these self-selected reports through interviews with different witnesses. Still, we consider the data obtained in our survey sufficiently robust to draw the conclusion that ELEs reported from animals are remarkably similar to those reported from human beings. The close similarity between animal and human ELEs might be a sign of a common physiology underpinning such experiences. In fact, there is increasing evidence supporting the notion that on a general level, the mental life of non-human animals, such as higher vertebrates and cephalopods is similar to that of humans. This is evidenced by similarities in cognition, play, and problem-solving, including the use of tools and emotional behavior that involves the secretion of the same types of neurotransmitters and hormones known to correlate with specific emotions in humans.

His database now has over 150 stories that have been classified into a number of recurring categories:

• Last goodbyes
• Last visits
• The last rally
• Retreating into solitude
• Unusual premonitions of death
• Somatic surprises
• Terminal lucidity
• Near-death visions?

In the paper, Rupert discusses the importance of further research into this topic and provides several examples from his collection.

Our cat lived an incredible 21 years but sud- denly became ill. We knew she was beyond her life expectancy but didn’t want her to suffer. However, before we could take her to the veter- inarian, late one Sunday afternoon, and with all of the family home but in separate parts of the house, she made her rounds to each of us, gen- tly pushing her head against a leg and looking up very lovingly and very softly, meowed, and walked away. Although she was a vocal and very affectionate cat, I can still recall all these years later what a profound feeling I had at the time as she walked away from me. Later as evening fell, we found her dead, peacefully, as if sleeping. Each of us in the family, my wife and two children shared our stories with one another and concluded that the cat said her “Goodbyes” in nearly the exact same manner.

You can read more of the stories here.

Image by J C