Foster care is a unique form of human-animal interaction that is increasingly understood to be an effective tool for improving the welfare of shelter-living animals. Even brief stays in foster care can allow animals to escape the stressors of the shelter, provide an environment that allows for greater social interaction, and offer opportunities for improved health and behavior.
In this presentation, we will highlight the key takeaways revealed in the 42 published articles evaluating companion animal foster care programs that are included in our recent review paper: Companion animal foster caregiving: A scoping review exploring animal and caregiver welfare, barriers to caregiver recruitment and retention, and best practices for foster care programs in animal shelters. During our discussion, we will examine a variety of foster care programs that have been studied, explore the evidence of their effects on human and animal welfare, evaluate the successes and challenges in supporting shelter foster care programs, illuminate discrepancies in equity and diversity of caregiver engagement that offer opportunities for recruitment, and recommend best practices for lasting programmatic success.
Learning Objectives:
1. Describe scientific research about foster caregiving as an intervention for companion animals.
2. Identify the proximate (i.e., physical and emotional) and distal (i.e., length of stay and adoption outcomes) welfare benefits of foster caregiving for shelter animals as well as their caregivers.
3. Explore opportunities for improving foster care programs in animal shelters, including utilizing a stepwise approach to foster caregiving, providing greater caregiver support, increasing the diversity of caregiver involvement, and expanding the extent of community engagement within foster care programs.
Guest Speakers:
Lisa Gunter, Assistant Professor, PhD, CAAB, CBCC-KA, and Grace Phillips, Master’s Student, Virgina Tech, School of Animal Sciences
