Do pets go to heaven? What different faiths say

The honest short answer

It's one of the first questions many people ask after a pet dies. Religious traditions give different answers, and there is often disagreement within a single faith. This guide doesn't try to settle the question. It sets out what several traditions teach, with sources, so you can think about it in your own way.

If you're grieving, wondering where your pet is now is a natural part of loss, whatever answer you come to.

What Christianity says about pets in heaven

The Bible

The Bible doesn't contain a verse about pets in heaven. Christians who hope animals will be there sometimes point to Isaiah 11, where the wolf lives with the lamb, and to Revelation 21, which describes a renewed creation with no more pain.

Evangelical Protestant views

An answer published by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association says plainly that the Bible doesn't specifically answer the question. Another answer from the same ministry reasons that "Heaven will be a place of perfect happiness for us," and that if we need animals to make that happiness complete, God will have them there. It cites Isaiah 11:6 to 7, Revelation 21:4 and 2 Peter 3:13.

Catholic teaching

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that animals are God's creatures, that he surrounds them with his providential care, and that people owe them kindness (paragraph 2416). It does not teach whether animals go to heaven.

The Pope Francis story

In December 2014, reports circulated widely that Pope Francis had told a grieving boy his dog would be in paradise. The story was wrong. TODAY corrected its own report and explained that the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera had attributed the comfort to a boy to an earlier pope, Paul VI. What Francis actually said, at a general audience, was a broader remark about Scripture teaching that God's plan affects everything around us.

So Christians who hope to see their pets again are in good company, and so are those who simply aren't sure.

What Judaism and Islam say

Judaism

Jewish sources have long disagreed about animal souls. An article by Rabbi Yehuda Shurpin on Chabad.org gathers the range of views:

• The Midrash says animals don't have a portion in the world to come.
• Maimonides held that reward and punishment apply to people alone.
• Rabbi Moshe Cordovero taught that an animal's soul ceases to exist when the animal dies.
• Rabbi Saadiah Gaon wrote that an animal is compensated for the pain it went through in life and death, which suggests it continues to exist.
• The teachings of the Arizal hold that animals do have their own souls and do go to heaven. A later Chabad rebbe, Rabbi Shmuel, explained that an animal's soul returns to its source in an elevated state, raised by its positive interactions with people.

That last idea speaks to many grieving owners: that the bond itself mattered, spiritually, to the animal.

Islam

The Quran (6:38) describes every creature on earth and every bird as forming communities like those of people, and says they will all be gathered to their Lord. A widely shared explanation on the site About Islam, citing that verse and Quran 81:5, teaches that animals will be resurrected on the Day of Judgment so that wrongs between them can be settled. Because animals are not held accountable for their actions as people are, it explains, they are not sent to paradise or hell, and afterward they return to dust.

Islam also places strong emphasis on treating animals with kindness in this life.

What Hinduism and Buddhism say

Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, which grew from the classical traditions of India, share the idea of samsara: a cycle of death and rebirth shaped by karma. Encyclopaedia Britannica describes the range of samsara as stretching from insects to the god Brahma. Animals and people are part of the same cycle.

In Hindu thought, the soul moves through many lives until it finds release, called moksha. Buddhism doesn't assume a permanent soul. It describes a less fixed core of personality that goes through the process of rebirth.

In these traditions, then, the question is less "will my pet go to heaven?" and more "where will this life lead next?" Some owners take comfort in the idea that a gentle, much-loved animal is part of a larger journey that continues.

Do dogs and cats go to heaven in these traditions?

These traditions don't usually describe a single heaven that pets enter and stay in. They describe continuing lives. Practices differ widely between communities and schools, so if this matters to you, a teacher or leader from your own tradition is the best person to ask.

Secular views, and the Rainbow Bridge

Many people don't hold religious beliefs about an afterlife. For them, comfort usually comes from somewhere else: the good life the pet had, the years you shared, the habits and love they left in you. A pet's life doesn't need to continue somewhere else to have mattered.

The most famous image of pets after death didn't come from scripture. The Rainbow Bridge, a meadow where pets wait to be reunited with their people, comes from a prose poem written by a Scottish teenager, Edna Clyne-Rekhy, in 1959 after her dog died. It isn't tied to any one religion, and people hold it in different ways: some as belief, some as a gentle way to think about loss. Our guide to the Rainbow Bridge poem tells its story and includes a short original poem.

A picture to hold on to

Some families like to give that hope a shape. Our Rainbow Bridge memorial video shows your pet at the foot of a bridge of soft light. They pause, look back at you, then run on into a sunlit meadow, with their name and dates on the last frame. It's made from 5 to 10 photos you already have and costs $89, including a keepsake poster still.

Talking to a child about where their pet went

Children often ask this question first, and they ask it directly. Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine advises being honest, including children in the conversation, and letting them ask questions even when you don't have every answer.

A few ways to start:

• Share what your family believes. "We believe Biscuit is with God now," or "We believe Biscuit's life was a gift, and he lives on in our memories."
• Use plain words alongside gentle ones. "Crossed the Rainbow Bridge" is kind, but pair it with "died" so a young child understands the pet isn't coming back.
• Say "I don't know" if that's the truth. It's honest, and it leaves room for their own questions.
• Make something together. A drawing, a story, or a box of favorite photos gives a child something to do with their feelings.

If your family is struggling, our guide to coping with pet loss lists free pet loss hotlines and support groups. For words to share with others, see pet loss quotes.