It can be hard to imagine if you haven’t been through it, but the death of a pet is a profound loss for many people. It can lead to such grief that some pet owners want employers to offer pet-bereavement leave.

Few do. Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, San Francisco, is one of the few employers that offer a three-day pet-bereavement leave. Founder Bill Kimpton brought his border collie, Chianti, to work with him starting in 1981, and the company has since supported “the special relationship humans have with their pets” by welcoming employees’ and guests’ pets at its hotels and providing pet insurance and bereavement leave for employees, says Mike DeFrino, Kimpton’s chief executive officer.

Some units of Mars Inc., the big candy and pet-food maker, offer one day or more off, flexible hours or freedom to work from home after a pet’s death, a spokesman says.

Other employers quietly grant bereaved pet owners time off case by case under other paid-time or sick-leave policies. Still, many grieving pet owners don’t ask for it because they’re too upset or afraid of eliciting eye-rolls from co-workers.

Jacqueline Schuck, of Los Angeles, adopted Penelope, a nine-year-old bulldog, to help her recover from the death of Maggie, another bulldog. Above, Ms. Schuck and Penelope. Photo: Jacqueline Schuck

Registered nurse Jacqueline Schuck of Los Angeles missed her first day of work in 30 years after her bulldog Maggie died suddenly of lymphoma last year. “Maggie’s loss devastated me like nothing else,” she says. She withdrew from talking with co-workers after returning to her job reviewing medical cases and sometimes burst into tears at her desk. “It’s very, very painful, and some people don’t understand that. You’re losing a creature that has been there for you with 100% unconditional love.” She and her husband Antonio have since begun doing volunteer work for a bulldog rescue group.

Family-leave laws don’t provide for time off for a pet’s sickness or death, says Nonnie Shivers, Phoenix, an employment lawyer who has studied the topic. Some employers wonder where they would draw the line: If you grant leave after the death of a dog, what about a fish? A tank of fish?

Others fear a backlash among employees who might see a pet-bereavement policy as too lax or permissive. At Matt Faust’s previous employer, some co-workers were incredulous when a colleague took a week off because his dog had died. Mr. Faust, a Chicago category manager for a retailing company, has had many pets and is saddened when they die, but he confines grieving to after hours, he says. He was proud of his mother, Joan, for making it to her job as an operations manager only a couple of hours late after the family’s 11-year-old Corgi died early one morning two years ago. She was “incredibly upset,” he says, but saw it is her job “to get through the day and be that team player” at work.

Matt Faust, a category manager for a retailing company, loves animals and was upset when Stuart, his pet Corgi, died two years ago, but he didn’t take any time off work. Photo: Joan Faust

Dawn Elliott of Los Angeles, an administrative assistant, wanted to be home with her 17-year-old cat, Shaggy, on the day she’d planned to have him euthanized because of kidney disease. But she didn’t feel she could object when her managers asked her to report to work before the appointment to prepare some reports, and to return afterward to take some mailings to the post office.

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