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Emergency Fostering of Dogs From Animal Shelters During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Shelter Practices, Foster Caregiver Engagement, and Dog Outcomes

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dc.contributor.authorGunter, Lisa M.en
dc.contributor.authorGilchrist, Rachel J.en
dc.contributor.authorBlade, Emily M.en
dc.contributor.authorReed, Jenifer L.en
dc.contributor.authorIsernia, Lindsay T.en
dc.contributor.authorBarber, Rebecca T.en
dc.contributor.authorFoster, Amanda M.en
dc.contributor.authorFeuerbacher, Erica N.en
dc.contributor.authorWynne, Clive D. L.en
dc.date.accessioned2022-06-29T18:15:05Zen
dc.date.available2022-06-29T18:15:05Zen
dc.date.issued2022-04-27en
dc.description.abstractEach year, millions of dogs enter thousands of animal shelters across the United States. Life in the shelter can be stressful, and one type of intervention that improves dogs' experience is human interaction, particularly stays in foster homes. Prior research has demonstrated that fostering can reduce dogs' cortisol and increase their resting activity. Despite these benefits, little is understood about the utilization of foster caregiving in animal shelters, and even less so during a crisis. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization deemed the coronavirus outbreak a worldwide pandemic, and subsequently a nationwide emergency was declared in the United States. Nearly all states issued stay-at-home orders to curb the spread of the virus. During this time, media outlets reported increased interest in the adoption and fostering of shelter pets. This study explores canine foster caregiving at 19 US animal shelters during the first 4 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. In our investigation, we found that shelters' utilization of foster caregiving increased from March to April 2020 but returned to initial pandemic levels by June 2020. Slightly less than two-fifths of foster caregivers were community members with no prior relationship with the shelter, and these caregivers were over four times more likely to adopt their fostered dogs than those with a pre-existing relationship to the shelter. Individuals fostering with the intention to adopt, in fact, adopted their dogs in nearly three-quarters of those instances. With regards to shelters' available resources, we found that very low-resource shelters relied more heavily on individuals with prior relationships to provide foster caregiving while very high-resource shelters more often recruited new community members. We also found that our lowest resourced shelters transferred more dogs out of their facilities while more resourced shelters rehomed dogs directly to adopters. To our knowledge, these findings represent the first in-depth reporting about dog fostering in US animal shelters and, more specifically, foster caregiving during the COVID-19 pandemic. In total, they provide greater understanding of how monetary and human resources were utilized to affect the care and ultimately, the outcomes of shelter dogs during this time.en
dc.description.notesThis study was funded by Maddie's Fund. The funder had no role in data collection, analysis, or interpretation of the results.en
dc.description.sponsorshipMaddie's Funden
dc.description.versionPublished versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2022.862590en
dc.identifier.eissn2297-1769en
dc.identifier.other862590en
dc.identifier.pmid35573394en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/110980en
dc.identifier.volume9en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherFrontiersen
dc.rightsCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 Internationalen
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/en
dc.subjectdogen
dc.subjectanimal shelteren
dc.subjectfoster careen
dc.subjectCOVID-19 pandemicen
dc.subjectwelfareen
dc.subjectadoptionen
dc.subjectemergencyen
dc.titleEmergency Fostering of Dogs From Animal Shelters During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Shelter Practices, Foster Caregiver Engagement, and Dog Outcomesen
dc.title.serialFrontiers in Veterinary Scienceen
dc.typeArticle - Refereeden
dc.type.dcmitypeTexten

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