Free Online Pet-Loss Support Groups

If you are grieving a pet tonight and don’t want to sit with it alone, you don’t have to, and you don’t have to pay to be heard. Two established organizations run free, facilitated pet-loss support online. We checked both directly. We take no money for listing them — this is a pointer, not a product.

Lap of Love. Its Support Center runs free, virtual Pet Loss Support Groups led by what the page calls “professionally certified pet loss coaches.” Its own wording is that coaches “lead a range of free and fee-based, virtual sessions” — so be clear-eyed: the group sessions are free, but Lap of Love also sells paid one-on-one sessions and courses. The Support Center number is (855) 933-5683, listed as available 24/7, every day of the year.

Association for Pet Loss and Bereavement (APLB). The APLB hosts “free, scheduled, live sessions on an easy-to-use online group chat platform,” staffed by “trained volunteer Pet Loss Grief Specialists.” Sessions run on a published weekly schedule — at the time we checked, Sunday 2–4 p.m. and 8–10 p.m. ET, plus Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday 8–10 p.m. ET. Confirm the current schedule on their page before you log on.

One honest caveat that matters more than the rest: these are peer and grief-support resources, not mental-health crisis services. If grief turns into thoughts of self-harm, that is an emergency — call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, free and available 24/7.

Grief over an animal is real grief. Talking to people who already understand that is one of the few things that reliably helps.