Fostering and the Human-Animal Bond
A Guide for Companion Animal Foster Care Providers and Shelters
- 1st Edition - August 13, 2025
- Latest edition
- Author: Laura A. Reese
- Language: English
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
Description
Description
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 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.
Key features
Key features
- 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
Readership
Readership
Academic researchers, students, and animal care professionals studying human-animal interactions, animal welfare, and related disciplines
Table of contents
Table of contents
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
Product details
Product details
- Edition: 1
- Latest edition
- Published: August 13, 2025
- Language: English
About the author
About the author
LR
Laura A. Reese
Dr. Laura A. Reese is Professor Emeritus of Urban and Regional Planning at Michigan State University, President of Professional Animal Welfare Services, and Research Fellow at the Riley Center at the College of Charleston. She was the Founding Director of the Global Urban Studies Program (GUSP) at Michigan State University. Her main research and teaching areas are in animal shelter management, urban policy, economic development, and local governance, management, and planning. She brings an organizational psychology perspective to the planning and successful management of volunteer efforts and has written 14 books on the topic, including Elsevier’s Strategies for Successful Animal Shelters and Fostering and the Human-Animal Bond.
Affiliations and expertise
Professor Emeritus, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USAView book on ScienceDirect
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