Patterns in veterinary perimortem observations suggest mechanistically-obscure, death-correlated, physical phenomena

Healthcare workers in human hospice sometimes report surprising experiences at the time of their patients’ death, such as: sudden temperature changes, electrical malfunctions, and even glowing lights or mist-like formations around the body. We sought to explore whether veterinary professionals performing animal euthanasia have the same “Perimortem Observations” (PMOs), and whether these are merely coincidental or psychological in nature, or involve mechanistically-obscure physical phenomena.

An online, anonymous survey was distributed through a veterinary trade magazine, in-person at veterinary conferences, and through gated online veterinary communities. There were 581 completed responses to our survey, primarily from the USA. Analysis of responses indicates that 1) the same PMOs that occur among human healthcare workers also occur among veterinary professionals during animal euthanasia, 2) a majority of PMOs involve simultaneous observations by multiple individuals present, 3) some PMO types are more tightly temporally correlated with time of death than others, 4) many PMO features, shared across individual responses, are difficult to explain by known physical mechanisms, 5) the psychological effects of PMOs are overwhelmingly more likely to be positive than negative, and 6) a majority of veterinary professionals support PMO research.

Our findings suggest that many PMOs are not hallucinations or mere coincidences, but instead are observations of mechanistically-obscure, death-correlated, physical phenomena that can be recorded and studied by scientific instrumentation during routine veterinary euthanasia procedures.