< Tear Jerker

Tear Jerker/Pets and Animals


  • My First Friend The story of a boy and his dog. Very, Very sad.
    • The Answer, sung from the dog's point of view. Even more sorrowful, especially if you have a canine companion, or had one before.
  • Rainbow Bridge, a poem about pet loss.
  • Shark finning. Cutting off the fins of sharks for the use in shark fin soup. Why is this so bad? Well, for one thing, the sharks are still alive when they cut the fins off. For another thing, they throw them back in the water while without their fins while they're still alive. If you haven't figured it out, sharks need to swim in order to breathe, and to swim they need their fins. So, they're mutilating these animals and sentencing them to a horrible, painful death - all for soup. And the worst part? Shark fin is tasteless. The soup needs to be flavoured with other things just to be edible, so it really is just for the name.
  • Female ducklings in Foie Gras farms. That is all... sniff.
  • This especially if the thought of dogs, wolves, and other canines invokes remembering the Wolf's Rain Ending Song.
  • Laika, first living creature in space. She was never intended to come back down. Sent up in a rocket to die. "Work with animals is a source of suffering to all of us. We treat them like babies who cannot speak. The more time passes, the more I'm sorry about it. We shouldn't have done it... We did not learn enough from this mission to justify the death of the dog."
    • Her 'real name' was Kudryavka. She is the first casualty of the space age, and the First Martyr Of Space.
    • And for extra tear-jerking. here's a song in her honor: Space Doggity by Jonathan Coulton.
      • Oh balls. Don't watch that video if you've recently lost a pet.
      • Animals hold a special place in our hearts, to see that she is remembered, even today, when her death was so senseless gives me hope.
    • One of the scientists took her home to play with his children before the launch. "I wanted to do something nice for her: she had so little time left to live." She is also memoralised on the Monument to the Conquerors of Space in Moscow. This troper is tearing up as he writes this. Ad astra per aspera, Kudryavka, the very first to orbit the Earth.
  • Pick a sad dog story. ANY sad dog story, from the horrifically heart-wrenching like Laika above (which causes this troper to just... shut down), to a dog who stubs his toe... this troper will sob. Hard. This troper can't even look at the Kick the Dog page.
  • This video reduced this troper to angry tears the first time he saw it. A harpooned whale will suffer up to an hour of unimaginable pain before finally drowning in its own blood or succumbing to massive organ trauma. The thing that gets this troper even more is that throughout this entire gruesome event, the other whales in the pod will not abandon their comrade; the sadistic motherfuckers manning the harpoons will take advantage of this to kill the rest of the pod.
  • This story about a cat named Ugly. This troper bawled.
    • Ugly the cat is, along with Fry's dog, widely acknowledged as "the only thing that makes Anonymous cry".
      • Then you realise that Bender's Big Score retconned the dog's fate to what's essentially a mercy kill from the writer's themselves. The fact that even the authors just couldn't take it anymore gives this troper a new dimension of sadness.
  • The last horse racing match race ever run was between Ruffian and Foolish Pleasure. Ruffian broke her leg partway through the race and kept running anyway. To quote her jockey, Jacinto Vasquez, "[Ruffian] went on running, pulverizing her sesamoids, ripping the skin of her fetlock as the bones burst through, driving the open wound into the sting sand of the Belmont track, tearing her ligaments, until her hoof was flopping uselessly, bent up like the tip of a ski." Surgery was done on Ruffian, but upon awakening, she thrashed about so violently she re-injured her leg and had to be put down.
        • That was all they said. They worked quickly, the two vets removing the broken bones as evidence for the insurance company, the crowd silently watching. Then the heavens opened, the rain pouring down, the lightning flashing, and they rushed for the cover of the stables, leaving alone on his side near the pile of bricks, the rain running off his hide, dead an hour and a quarter after his first start, Air Lift, son of Bold Venture, full brother of Assault.
      • That was written by W.C. Heinz, one of the greatest sports writers of all time, as it happened.
  • This. A little bat, injured, ended up on the Discovery shuttle the night before it lift off. It induced Manly Tears and grief from this troper. Here's to you, Spacebat. Godspeed.
    • One likes to think, that this bat took the chance to fulfill his dream, of seeing the stars up close.
    • I'll just leave this here.
    • Oh God, I'd read almost the whole page without crying, and somehow that, and the "Godspeed" made this troper break down.
  • Barbaro.
    • Also Eight Belles.
        • Somewhere... Somewhere in Time's own space / There must be some sweet pastured place / Where creeks sing on and tall trees grow / Some Paradise where horses go / For by the love that guides my pen / I know great horses live again. --Stanley Harrison
  • The Dooze. A truly heartrending story.
  • "For the last 12 years, a single solitary whale whose vocalizations match no known living species has been tracked across the Northeast Pacific. Its wanderings match no known migratory patterns of any living whale species. Its vocalizations have also subtly deepened over the years, indicating that the whale is maturing and ageing. And, during the entire 12 year span that it has been tracked, it has been calling out for contact from others of its own kind. It has received no answer. Nor will it ever."
    • Hopefully - for the whale's sake- he is not the only one of his kind, merely a whale that has a... different song, but finds happiness. Yes, that was cheesy. Apologies.
  • A golden retriever tries in vain to save his master, but couldn't stop her from drowning.
  • The reverse of the above: A man dives into a hot spring to save his dog. Unfortunately, neither survived.
  • This image of a dog and his dead owner.
  • Those ASPCA commercials! With those clips of sad animals set to sad music... It ought to be illegal to show them.
  • This video of a cat giving a cardiac massage to his injured girlfriend.
    •  :( Made this troper bawl like a baby.
      • The tears came in floods for this troper. To make it worse, she recalled Mufasa's death scene and how poor Simba tried and failed to wake him up. She just can't fathom how a person parking a car would fail to notice the cat or even hear the meows of pain and anguish! T-T
    • This troper had the misfortune to see something like that first-hand - her first day at a new job, she had to run paperwork across the street to Accounting. On the way back, she heard frantic barking from the road...turned around to see that one of the two Pomeranians who lived in the Parks & Rec center had been run over by a car. His buddy (and probably littermate) was standing over him, barking and nudging him like he was saying "Hey, get up," and... excuse me, gonna go have a cry now.
  • Whenever a pet has to be put down, they give the owner the option of staying with their pet or leaving. The note then begs the owners to stay with their pets, because if they leave, the pets always look around to try and find them...
    • Putting animals down as an act of mercy is understandable - if the animal is in severe pain and there's no hope of the poor thing ever not being in pain again. But even then, the idea of a pet surrounded by strangers, in an intimidating environment, about to die, looking around desperately, trying to find its owners - and they're nowhere to be seen...
      • It's just heartbreaking because some LOOK at the road and look around for their people. At least they have a chance to get adopted and go home. Think about all those dogs who never had that chance, and died never finding their owners again and being in the arms of strangers. And the owners who never found out what happened to their dogs.
  • The Cat Who'll Live Forever. Page 218. This cat got a full page tribute to him in people Magazine, a moment of silence on the radio, and a obit in the New York Times. RIP Norton Gethers
  • The death of All Ball, pet kitten of Koko the gorilla.
  • The saddest dog story you'll ever read. In Japan, a salaryman living in an outlying suburb of Tokyo had a faithful dog that would follow him to the train station every morning to watch him get on board, then return to the station every afternoon to greet his master when he returned from the city. One day, the owner was killed in an accident while in the city. Neighbors adopted the dog and took care of him, but...here's the tearjerker. Every afternoon, for the rest of his life, like clockwork, that little dog would trot down to the train station to meet the afternoon train, and sit there, watching hopefully for his master, until every last person disembarked, then mope home.
  • The story of Monster Truck on rathergood.com. May as well copy-paste it.

Monster Truck was a beautiful little cat with a beautiful little soul. We chose him from his litter because he was both the prettiest and most vivacious kitten we could find. The kids loved him immediately. He settled in straight away, with none of the hiding and fright that Vlad suffered from when we first brought him home.

Despite the enthusiastic love he received from Zak and Bliss, Monsty never got upset or afraid. He always played along, and always had a great deal of love to give. We took delight in his rapidly growing skills as he developed from a kitten in to a small cat.

He was always desperate to get out. We kept him in as we had been told, and recaptured him on the occasions he slipped out of the back door with the kids (after a bit of a creep around the garden). He was very unhappy about this, and made it clear his natural habitat was pouncing in the wild undergrowth, being a very dangerous predator.

Eventually the day came when he had his final jabs at the vet (which he was very brave about of course). We got him microchipped so that he would never be lost, and we bought him a very fetching red collar with his name, address and phone number so that if he was found he would be helped home. Finally Monster Truck was ready to go out in to the world!

A few weeks prior to this a new family had moved in two doors down. They seemed nice and have two kids the same age as ours, so we were looking forward to having new people to play with. They had been re-housed from a one-bed flat, which must have been pretty cramped.

What we did not know was that they were planning on moving a killer dog in as well.

It turns out they own a mastiff. A mastiff which had spent its life in a one-bed flat with 4 people. A mastiff which is never walked. A mastiff which hates cats.

A couple of days in to Monster Truck's new-found freedom we were all playing in the garden. Monsty climbed the tree, got on to the roof of the shed, wondered in to next door's garden, all of which we now felt was his right as an officially sorted-out cat. I even took my eyes off him to play with the kids. I noticed the new guy was sitting in the garden with his huge dog- the first time I had seen it- but thought no harm could come of it as he was right there.

There was a cat screech- the kind of noise you hear when cats fight. No barking. I thought a bigger cat must have had a pop at Monsty so went to have a look, but no, two gardens down the psycho dog had mauled Monsty! No barking, no aggression, no reason for Monsty to run away. He had gone to say hello and the dog had simply chomped him without warning.

I ran round to the front and rang the doorbell. The guy tried to make out Monster was OK, but he was clearly very badly hurt. There was blood in his mouth and he was gasping. I asked Jacqui to phone the emergency vet while I tried to comfort him, but the poor little guy passed away in my arms.

I simply couldn't believe it. That such a beautiful little soul could be so quickly and so cruelly snuffed out by a psycho dog, as soon as he was ready to go out in to the world! We got the new neighbour back out, I was distraught, the guy apologised and offered to buy a new kitten as if Monster had been a piece of property, and as if there was any point when he had just brought a killer dog in to our street to murder our pets. Jacqui is now worried about the kids. The dog is massive and clearly dangerous. The guy ended up promising to get rid of the dog.

After warning the neighbour on the other side to keep an eye on his cats we went in to the garden to dig Monster Truck a grave, under the tree, by the shed. We buried him there with his favourite toy giraffe. The kids said goodbye, and gave him a last kiss and a last stroke. They wanted to know why he wasn't moving, when he would be better, why he had blood on him. It's all very difficult to explain and very sad.

I've been genuinely surprised at how sad I am for that poor little cat. I just wish we could turn back the clock and keep him in, or could have done something to stop the new neighbours bringing a dangerous dog in to our street. But there isn't anything we can do and all those years of fun that he should have had, growing old as the kids grew up, have been cancelled now. He isn't going to get any of that. His shot at the world is over nearly as soon as it began. That poor, poor, beautiful little cat, who died in my arms, looking at me wondering what had happened to him and probably trusting me to make it ok. I'm sorry I couldn't make it ok, little cat.

We love you Monster Truck. We love you very very much. Goodbye, I hope Vlad is looking after you in Kitty Valhalla.

UPDATE: I got a call to say the dog is gone. PHEW! Hopefully we can all be friends now.

  • Tobey. In 2007, three teenage boys stole Tobey, a five month old Pomeranian, from his owner's front yard to an abandoned house. There they repeatedly threw the puppy out of a second story window until his legs were broken, then afterward hung him from a tree, burned him with a cigarette lighter and beat him with a piece of wood like a pinata. Then when all of that was over with they decapitated him. The worst part? The maximum prison sentences each of these boys could have gotten was 10 years; they were sentenced to six to nine months in a treatment facility.
  • There's a Pedigree dog food commercial about shelter dogs that ALWAYS makes this Troper cry...

Narrator: I know how to sit, how to fetch and how to roll over. What I don't know is how I ended up in here. But I know that I am a good dog, and I just want to go home...

  • Peter Singer's Animal Liberation has a passage where he describes experimentation on maternal isolation in monkeys. The image of a monkey, separated from birth from its parents, hugging a cloth doll for dear life is sad enough. The image of a monkey with a "porcupine mother" that shoots out brass spines, patiently waiting until the spines recede so it can hug the mother again, that is true tearjerker territory. God, this troper hates humanity sometimes...
  • A few years ago, an animal cruelty story came to the attention of my home town's local news. A couple heard what sounded like an upset or injured dog and went outside to see what was wrong. Turns out some sick, twisted individual had buried the poor thing up to his nose in the backyard next door. The only thing that made this troper not go on a maniacal rampage from sheer righteous fury was the fact that they were able to save the poor guy and get him to a local veterinary clinic where he recuperated and was then adopted by a loving family. He has since been doing fine - complete with his new moniker... Lazarus. Just thought that I'd share something on here that lets us know that, while a lot of Humans Are the Real Monsters, there are good ones out there, like the ones that helped this pup.
  • The slaughtering of South American horses for Belgium meat. Most are skeletally thin and near the brink of death before they're casually killed for their meat. Those that don't cooperate are grievously injured.
  • Theo, an army sniffer dog, died hours after his handler was killed in a firefight, despite not being injured himself. Soldier and dog were then flown home together.
  • The story of Lobo the Wolf. Strange you know, Lobo's precious mate Blanca, who fits the trope Friendly Target in this story perfectly, was killed by Seton, who broke her neck by dragging her along on their horse with a rope, in order to finally capture the illusive Lobo. If Lobo and Blanca were humans, and this was in some typical story, wouldn't Seton be seen as a Complete Monster of a villain?
  • "The Stunning Rescue of Danelle Ballengee". She was running with her dog, Taz, in Moab, Utah, when she fell down a cliff and shattered her pelvis. There are some truly amazing things she and her dog did in this situation. Instead of abandoning her, Taz cuddled to her through the whole first night they were stuck. Danelle was really athletic and in addition to trying to crawl away, she kept doing little head sit ups while her bones were shattered. But the most amazing thing is that Taz left her only to try and get help help. She was rescued because Taz led the search and rescue teams to her. This story was on an episode of "I Shouldn't Be Alive" where Danelle shared other details like how the dog wouldn't drink any of her water until he knew the rescuers were coming.
  • There was a video of the Tsunami in Japan, a dog refused to leave his injured friend until Human help arrived.
  • ANYTHING involving a cat being harmed affects me severely.
  • Seeing any film of the now-(probably)extinct Golden Toads is pretty depressing. Just look at this.
    • The mutations/extinctions of frogs and toads on a global scale due to pollution and the rise of the chytridomycosis fungus.Hardly anything is done for the poor things because people don't see them as "cute" or "companion-like" compared to a dog or a cat...
    • Seeing the only known footage of a thylacine (as well as any video of an extinct animal) makes me want to cry.
  • The story of Sirius, the only police dog killed on 9/11. His handler left him in his cage while he ran off to help evacuate the buildings, but promised that he would come back for him. Unfortunately, he was unable to reach him before the buildings came down, ironically partly because he himself was trapped in the rubble. When he got free, he had to be physically restrained from trying to reach the kennel area and was subsequently prohibited from returning to the site. However, he kept his promise to Sirius. On January 22, 2002, he received a phone call that his remains had been found and immediately went to Ground Zero, at which point, Sirius was given all the respect that had been bestowed to his human counterparts.
  • Last year, a man named Jonathan Metz ventured into his basement to do some house cleaning and promptly found his arm pinned beneath some equipment. For three days, he struggled to break loose while his dog Portia, who was locked in upstairs, barked and howled frantically, hungry and confused as to why he had disappeared. When he noticed that her barking fits were becoming quieter and less frequent, coinciding with his own weakening state, he finally resolved to cut his arm off in order to be free. This story was featured on the TV show I Survived. At the end of the episode, footnotes indicated that the man had recovered from his injuries and married his girlfriend. . .and the final line stated, "Jonathan's dog Portia also survived". He was just as concerned for her welfare as for his.
  • The Real Life examples that were in the Reptiles Are Abhorrent page. Can you imagine how horrible it is to be hated and persecuted just because you look different?
  • Every pet owners worst nightmare, where you assume your dog is just sleeping in the front yard like s/he usually does and you go in to use the bathroom or something. The doorbell rings and you see your hysterical neighbour telling you the dog isn't breathing. Finally you all run over to find the dog had passed away in his sleep.
    • Imagine your dog, that you've had since you were in elementary school slowly dying of a heart attack right in front of you, writhing in pain. And not being able to do a single thing about it.
      • Or seeing a patient who was traumatized when his golden retriever that was as old as he was ran into the street and got hit by a car as he yelled "NO! NO! STOP! STOP!! COME BACK!!" The kid was six.
    • Or when you've grown up and moved away from home... and you get the phone call from your dad that your dog that you've loved for 15 years has to be put to sleep, and you're too far away to make it there in time to say goodbye...
  • The Old Dog and the Grieving Man This is a beautiful story.
  • A few of the stories on this page involve this, but I'm gonna spill this out. Very few animals feel the concept of grief—sure, they can feel sad, or angry, but it's difficult for them to become attached to someone or something and mourn it for an extended period. There are two major exceptions. The first is primates: humans obviously, but other primate species, especially gorillas, have shown grief. There are stories of gorilla mothers who lose a baby due to illness or accident, and carry around the corpse for days at a time, and attempt to nurse it. They typically show extreme disruption of sleep patterns during this period. The other exceptions are companion animal species. Dogs, when faced with the loss of a human or fellow dog they are attached to, frequently try to resuscitate the body, and attack anyone who comes near it. An increasingly observed phenomenon in cats whose owners die, particularly if they've been with the same owner since kittenhood, is that they will flat out give up on life. They won't eat, they won't move, they'll just lie in one place for a while until they succumb to Death by Despair and go to be Together in Death with their beloved friend. So to you all who have been reduced to tears by the heartbreaking stories on this page...know that it's mutual. Animals cry for you too.
    • And for each other. Elephants mourn their loved ones.
    • This troper would like to contest to that troper's assertion, that only a few animals can feel grief. He read an article in the magazine All Animals about two chickens, a rooster and a hen, who fell in love and did everything together. When the hen died, the rooster was devastated and refused to eat. Sure, animals may interpret their own emotions differently, but they've all got the same ones as we do deep down inside.
      • Also, magpies have been observed performing funeral rites.
  • The story of Popcorn, the albino Burmese Python. This snake was used for education purposes to get people to love and appreciate reptiles. Then, one day, an eight-year old hellion walked up to Popcorn, who was lounging on the grass, said, "I hate snakes!" and stomped on the python's head. The poor snake thrashed around violently in agony for several minutes, her spinal cord broken, while the kid laughed. Then the boy's father took the child away and said, "this is why I don't take you anywhere" and Popcorn died.
    • The whole idea of Reptiles Are Abhorrent and What Measure Is a Non-Cute? is a Tear Jerker in itself. Why should these wonderful animals be loathed and persecuted just because they look different?
    • While some articles assert that the boy had been taught by his father to hate snakes, it seems to this troper that the boy was a "problem child" who the father had trouble controlling.
    • There was no call for that. That doesn't sound like a learned fear - if it was the kid would have bolted. That sounds like sadism taken out on an Acceptable Target.
  • The death of Theo the British Army bomb sniffer dog in Afghanistan. He was out on patrol with his handler, Liam Tasker, when Liam was shot dead. The dog was unharmed, but in such distress he had to be cut free from his leash to be taken back to base when Liam's comrades found them. Hours later - and this was a healthy young dog, not even two years old - Theo was dead of a heart attack. It was said at the time that he'd died of a broken heart. His ashes were sent back to England with Liam's body and they were buried together.
  • The finches my relatives had. They were more or less raised completely together their entire lives. One of them died, and the other one huddled in a corner and refused to eat until he died.
  • This LiveJournal post, followed by the second comment on it
  • Dusty the Cat is a very sad story... Dusty's owner uploaded Youtube videos of him abusing Dusty and another cat (I believe the other cat was named Patches). Needless to say, Anonymous and 4chan were both not pleased, and quickly got the cops on the brat, and all seemed well for Dusty and Patches. The Tear Jerker comes at the end, however; Both cats are still living with the abusers, and nothing has been done to help them because the sheriff is friends with the family that owns them. This tropette, a cat lover herself, was enraged.
    • This needs to be reported to the SPCA.
  • My aunt's finches. One of them died...and the other one huddled in a corner until he died.
  • The fact that in at least one species of penguin, when mothers lose their chicks, they're often so desperate to adopt any unattended chick they find that they kill the poor little thing by fighting over it.
  • Firefly squid are deep-water bio luminescent squid known for their brilliant blue glow. Their ink is also luminescent. They are also fished commercially for food, primarily caught in nets. When they are caught in the nets, they all begin to release their ink in reaction to the stress. This creates one of the most beautiful and breathtaking [dead link] sights one can ever see. It's also heartbreaking to know that these animals do this as they die, more or less.
  • The baiji, also known as the Yangtze River dolphin has been recently declared functionally extinct.
  • The misunderstood spider meme on the internet. *Sniff* Poor spiders...
  • The Science Marches On trope can be tear jerking if an animal fact you've believed since childhood has been disproven recently. For example, Komodo dragons have always been one of my favorite animals, and the whole "Komodo dragon bites an animal, bacteria-filled saliva mixed with venom slowly kills the animal, dragon tracks it down and eats it" thing was really cool. Komodos have never been observed doing that in real life. *sniff* Also makes you realize that all those cool T.V documentaries you saw as a kid were lying to you.
  • Whenever a police dog is killed in the line of duty, they're buried with full honors like the humans they serve with. One dog in my city gets a gravestone with a "dog's prayer" which is so perfect because it is exactly how a dog would pray if they could.

Lord, watch over my handler. Keep him safe. Help me to be a good dog and protect the innocent. I ask for nothing for myself.

  • This video looks at animals that went extinct in the 20th century. Sad enough, but Eternity, by Robbie Williams, happens to be playing. I'm gonna go cry all over my pillow now.
  • Endlings. Don't know what they are? They're the LAST animals alive in their species, after they die their species is completely extinct. Poor Lonesome George.
  • This article, "Nature Is Over". And it's all our fault. We won as the dominant species, but at what cost?!
  • This person stayed at a con in a group room, and brought their cat along because they couldn't find someone to take care of them. One of the other people in the room had a major chip on her shoulder about the fact that the cat owner was cosplaying Equius from Homestuck, so she took the cat out of the carrier they were staying in and chucked them out of the hotel. The cat owner later finds their beloved pet lying in the road, bleeding to death, because they'd been run over by a car. Completely devastated, they scoop up the cat and start singing "You are my sunshine" to it as it dies in their arms.
    • Let's rephrase this. A convention-goer killed somebody's cat because they didn't like their fandom.
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