Fostering and the Human-Animal Bond
A Guide for Companion Animal Foster Care Providers and Shelters
- 1st Edition - September 1, 2025
- Imprint: Academic Press
- Author: Laura A. Reese
- Language: English
- Paperback ISBN:9 7 8 - 0 - 4 4 3 - 4 3 8 3 2 - 5
- eBook ISBN:9 7 8 - 0 - 4 4 3 - 4 3 8 3 3 - 2
Fostering and the Human-Animal Bond: A Guide for Companion Animal Foster Care Providers and Shelters delves into the profound connection between humans and animals in animal foster… Read more
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Request a sales quoteFostering and the Human-Animal Bond: A Guide for Companion Animal Foster Care Providers and Shelters delves into the profound connection between humans and animals in animal fostering. Faced with capacity challenges, shelters often struggle to maintain animal health and welfare, sometimes leading to euthanasia. By examining various facets of the fostering experience, it provides essential information to improve volunteer recruitment and retention, ultimately benefiting both the animals and those who care for them. This comprehensive guide, written by an animal welfare expert, integrates interdisciplinary research from animal behavior, welfare, volunteerism, social work, and psychology.
The book explores methods to enhance the emotional well-being of foster volunteers, their coping mechanisms, and the overall welfare of the animals, making it an invaluable resource for shelter professionals, foster coordinators, researchers, and students in related fields with its practical advice and insights to support and improve the fostering experience.
The book explores methods to enhance the emotional well-being of foster volunteers, their coping mechanisms, and the overall welfare of the animals, making it an invaluable resource for shelter professionals, foster coordinators, researchers, and students in related fields with its practical advice and insights to support and improve the fostering experience.
- Highlights the practical applications of research into the human-animal bond for shelter animal welfare
- Improves accessibility of research findings and visual models for academic and professional audiences
- Provides links to programs recommended for implementation by animal shelters and rescues
Academic researchers, students, and animal care professionals studying human-animal interactions, animal welfare, and related disciplines
Chapter 1: Fostering and the Human-Animal Bond
a. Prelude
b. The need for animal foster care
c. Research questions
d. Organization of the book
Chapter 2: Literature Review
a. The role of fostering, benefits to animal welfare and sheltering
b. Motivations for volunteering generally and fostering specifically
c. Human-animal bond and the attachment to pets
d. Lessons from the human foster care literature
e. Human personality and the human-animal bond
f. Grief, resiliency and self-care
g. Volunteer satisfaction
h. The hypothetical model, tying the literature together
i. Summary and key takeaways
Chapter 3: Methodology
a. Survey construction and participants: sampling, questionnaire construction, response rate
b. Measures and indicators
c. Analytic methods
d. Characteristics of the respondents
Chapter 4: Foster Volunteers and Nature of the Fostering Experience
a. Motivations to foster
b. Other volunteer activities of foster carers
c. Tenure and frequency of fostering
d. Types of animals fostered (species, medical, behavioral, very young animals) e. Summary of the effects of volunteer traits
f. Testing
Part 1 of the explanatory model
g. Summary and key takeaways
Chapter 5: The Emotions of Fostering
a. Volunteer descriptions of the foster experience
b. Attachment to foster animals
c. Reactions to loss/leaving of foster animals
d. The importance of fostering mindset
e. Volunteer expectations for the foster experience versus reality
f. Testing Part 2 of the explanatory model
g. Summary and key takeaways
Chapter 6: Dealing with the Emotions of Fostering: Self-Care, Resilience, and Satisfaction
a. Volunteer self-care practices
b. Foster volunteer resilience
c. Foster volunteer satisfaction
d. Correlates of self-care, resilience, and satisfaction
e. Testing
Part 3 of the explanatory model
f. Summary and key takeaways
Chapter 7: Summary and Implications for Practice
a. Revisiting the research questions
b. Summary of key takeaways from each chapter
c. Shelter administrators survey
d. Other implications for practice
e. Limitations and future research
f. Postlude
a. Prelude
b. The need for animal foster care
c. Research questions
d. Organization of the book
Chapter 2: Literature Review
a. The role of fostering, benefits to animal welfare and sheltering
b. Motivations for volunteering generally and fostering specifically
c. Human-animal bond and the attachment to pets
d. Lessons from the human foster care literature
e. Human personality and the human-animal bond
f. Grief, resiliency and self-care
g. Volunteer satisfaction
h. The hypothetical model, tying the literature together
i. Summary and key takeaways
Chapter 3: Methodology
a. Survey construction and participants: sampling, questionnaire construction, response rate
b. Measures and indicators
c. Analytic methods
d. Characteristics of the respondents
Chapter 4: Foster Volunteers and Nature of the Fostering Experience
a. Motivations to foster
b. Other volunteer activities of foster carers
c. Tenure and frequency of fostering
d. Types of animals fostered (species, medical, behavioral, very young animals) e. Summary of the effects of volunteer traits
f. Testing
Part 1 of the explanatory model
g. Summary and key takeaways
Chapter 5: The Emotions of Fostering
a. Volunteer descriptions of the foster experience
b. Attachment to foster animals
c. Reactions to loss/leaving of foster animals
d. The importance of fostering mindset
e. Volunteer expectations for the foster experience versus reality
f. Testing Part 2 of the explanatory model
g. Summary and key takeaways
Chapter 6: Dealing with the Emotions of Fostering: Self-Care, Resilience, and Satisfaction
a. Volunteer self-care practices
b. Foster volunteer resilience
c. Foster volunteer satisfaction
d. Correlates of self-care, resilience, and satisfaction
e. Testing
Part 3 of the explanatory model
f. Summary and key takeaways
Chapter 7: Summary and Implications for Practice
a. Revisiting the research questions
b. Summary of key takeaways from each chapter
c. Shelter administrators survey
d. Other implications for practice
e. Limitations and future research
f. Postlude
- Edition: 1
- Published: September 1, 2025
- No. of pages (Paperback): 300
- No. of pages (eBook): 300
- Imprint: Academic Press
- Language: English
- Paperback ISBN: 9780443438325
- eBook ISBN: 9780443438332
LR
Laura A. Reese
Dr. Laura A. Reese currently serves as the director of the Global Urban Studies Program and is a professor of Urban and Regional Planning and Political Science at Michigan State University, United States. She received her PhD in political science from Wayne State University, United States. She has written and contributed to hundreds of journal articles and publications, and has coauthored more than 10 books to date. Dr. Reese has been a board member of the Humane Society of Livingston County, has provided shelter services research support to the Humane Society of Huron Valley, the Detroit Department of Health, and the Detroit Animal Care and Control. Dr. Reese has provided training for local officials on economic development and for shelter and animal control professionals on dog bite prevention and shelter practice.
Affiliations and expertise
Director, Global Urban Studies Program and Professor, Departments of Urban and Regional Planning and Political Science, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA