About Dead Pet Girls
What is this?
Grief is a universal experience, but we rarely talk about the pain of losing a beloved pet.
This platform and community delves into the world of pet death, offering a welcoming space for honest conversations whilst exploring the quirky cultural aspects of pet loss that are often left unspoken.
57% of UK households and 66% of US households have pets, with a whopping 97% considering them family. Pet loss, then, becomes a powerful unifier for us all. It touches everyone from Queen Elizabeth to Kim Kardashian and everyone in between. Often, our first encounter with death is through a childhood pet, shaping how we navigate grief throughout our lives.
We tackle this sensitive topic with a unique blend of humour, sadness, and heartfelt sentiment. With a sprinkle of camp and counterculture, Dead Pet Girls creates a platform that sparks reflection on individual and societal values. From the most extravagant of memorials to the subtle ways we express love for our furry friends, each story reveals something profound about love and loss.
From captivating tales of space dogs to interviews with contemporary artists, deep dives into the lives of cemetery-founding princesses and their lions to online memorials and lighthearted viral TikToks, Dead Pet Girls provides quirky cultural takes alongside resources and a community for those experiencing grief.
Dead Pet Girls has resonated with many all over the world, garnering over 3.5 million views on TikTok and attracting a cult of dedicated followers on social media.
We have appeared at Brunel University’s ‘Kimposium!: Symposium about all things Kardashian' hosted by Meredith Jones, have been contributors on the ‘Queer Death Stories’ podcast and are regular annual speakers at ‘Lifting the Lid: The International Festival of Death and Dying’.
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A little bit funny, a little bit sad, and a bit sentimental with a dash of camp and counterculture, these spaces can tell us a great deal about individual and social values. The ways that excessive shows of loved for our dearly departed companions
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Who knew there were so many stories to be told about dead pets?
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Who are we?
Cat Dorman is a curator and emerging writer currently based in Washington, DC. She has developed the lead exhibits for a new museum across from the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue exploring the fraught concept of the American Dream opening in 2025. Much of her work centers on the intersection of social history, art and literature, and death culture.With Dead Pet Girls she particularly enjoys bringing to life the many wild and fascinating personalities buried in the history of pet loss and animal culture and exploring what we can learn from them. Cat received her BA from American University in Literature and Art History and her MA from University College London in English: Issues in Modern Culture. She is currently working on her first collection of short stories.
She survives her deceased cats Max, Minnie, Marie, hamster Duchess and fish Annie and Pudd (x4).
Steff Boulton is a documentary producer and writer based in London who works in both development and production. She holds a dynamic track record, having nurtured acclaimed documentaries from initial concept to broadcast on prestigious platforms such as the BBC, Channel 4, ITV, and Disney+.Dead Pet Girls provides a platform for her to explore and share her fascination with the interplay of pop culture, history and pets whilst also providing solace and community for those journeying through pet loss. She has a BA in History from University College London.
She survives her dog Henry, rabbits Tippy and Lola, fish Flipper and Dipper and cat Cassius Earl Grey I.