If you’ve lost a pet, chances are you’ve heard of the Rainbow Bridge.
This mythical overpass is said to connect heaven and Earth, where grieving pet owners reunite for good with departed furry friends. It is a poem that launched a pet bereavement movement, inspired countless pet loss blogs and fueled a lucrative marketplace for rainbow bridge-themed dog urns and lava bead bracelets.
It’s ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul’ for an exploding $69 billion pet care industry.
The poem has been passed between animal lovers since the 1980s, but its origins are fuzzy – at least three men claim to have written it.
The poem – which assures that you and your deceased pet will eventually ‘cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again’ – is now the condolence standard for veterinary practices. Colin Dwyer, a New York City-based veterinarian, laughed when asked about it. But he conceded he and his staff regularly refer to this mythical crossing and sometimes offer a copy of the poem to heartbroken pet owners.
It offers ‘an easy way to have something to say,’ Dwyer said.
Even professionals have taken solace in the promise of the rainbow bridge. Veterinarian Julie Ann Luiz Adrian, an associate professor at the University of Hawaii, said it comforted her after her cat, Friday, died when Adrian was still a student.
‘It talks about the kisses from them, their nose twitching,’ said Adrian, referring to a line that appears in some versions. ‘Something in it resonates with people.’
And their sorrow is real, said Adrian, who would know. She published a study last year that concluded people follow the same trajectory of grief no matter who or what – human or animal – they are mourning. Almost 30 percent of pet owners reported prolonged grief lasting six months or longer, Adrian found, while 12 percent suffered major life disruption. More than 5 percent suffered post-traumatic stress.
The level of grief was determined by how the owner perceived the animal, Adrian said.
‘Was the animal truly part of the family?’ she said. ‘For some of us, and especially for the newer generation who are replacing kids with pets, our pets are our children.’
The trend of humanizing companion animals has helped grow the pet industry a steady $2 billion to $3 billion a year since 2010, according to the American Pet Products Association. Spending jumped by $6 billion, to nearly $67 billion, between 2015 and 2016 – the same year the millennial generation overtook baby boomers as the primary pet-owning demographic.
Three in five millennials own pets, according to APPA’s most recent survey, compared to about 50 percent of the general population. APPA research also found millennials are almost twice as likely to purchase urns or memorial items for their pets than baby boomers or Gen Xers.
APPA does not track pet bereavement as an independent category, spokeswoman Tierra Bonaldi said. But anecdotally, the offerings for grieving owners are getting more baroque.
‘Pet owners can now select everything from personalized headstones and urns to nose-imprinted pendants,’ Bonaldi said. ‘They can even turn their pets’ ashes into a diamond with memorial cremation jewelry.’
Corporate policy is catching up, with firms including Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants, Mars, Trupanion and Petco offering pet bereavement leave.
‘The Rainbow Bridge’ endures in the waiting room at Roundtop Animal Hospital in Upstate New York, where Cianna Fox, 25, said one need not be a millennial ‘pet parent’ to relate to the poem.
‘Honestly, it’s like, when you are in that situation and have to put a pet down, it’s nice to think there may be a happy ending,’ she said. ‘And the poem makes you think of a deeper meaning to their death.’
Brooklyn photographer Winnie Au, 31, said she had never heard of the bridge until the death in 2013 of her corgi, Tartine. Friends gave her condolence cards – yes, plural – and several referred to the otherworldly dog park ‘just this side of heaven.’
‘It seems really goofy, but when you are that upset, it’s a comforting thought,’ said Au, who now has a basset hound, Clementine.
Sife said losing a pet forces owners to face their own mortality, no matter how they grieve. Still, the rainbow bridge – in all its variations – ‘is what people want to hear,’ he insists. ‘It’s what we call in the trade ‘warm fuzzies.”
