Physical health caregiver, mental wellness supporter, and overall well-being advocate: Women's roles towards animal welfare during the COVID-19 emergency response

Haorui Wu; Ravinder Sarah Bains; Carole Preston

doi:10.1016/j.ijdrr.2023.103719

Physical health caregiver, mental wellness supporter, and overall well-being advocate: Women's roles towards animal welfare during the COVID-19 emergency response

Int J Disaster Risk Reduct. 2023 Jun 15:92:103719. doi: 10.1016/j.ijdrr.2023.103719. Epub 2023 Apr 24.

Authors

Haorui Wu¹, Ravinder Sarah Bains¹, Carole Preston¹

Affiliation

¹ School of Social Work, Dalhousie University, 3201-1459 LeMarchant St., PO Box 15000, Halifax, NS, B3H 4R2, Canada.

Abstract

Women's health-specific contributions in emergency response stages pertain primarily to family and community-based rescue and support-focused roles. As disasters affect both human beings and their animal co-inhabitants, comprehensive literature exploring women's contributions towards companion animal welfare in emergency response settings remains sparse. COVID-19-triggered public health mitigation strategies caused diverse challenges relating to veterinary medical service access, thus establishing a platform for a nuanced exploration of gendered roles vis-a-vis animal health and well-being during the initial COVID-19 emergency response period. This project employs a semi-structured interview approach to qualitatively investigate the roles, responsibilities, and experiences of twelve people, eleven of whom self-identify as women, who cared for animal co-inhabitants while seeking veterinary medical services during the COVID-19 emergency response in Metro Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. This research identifies three primary animal welfare-related roles that woman companion animal guardians (WCAGs) assumed during the COVID-19 emergency response period: 1) Companion animal physical health caregiver, spanning from nuclear to extended families and into the community; 2) Companion animal mental wellness supporter, associated with human-animal interactions in family/household, community, and veterinary clinic settings; 3) Companion animal holistic well-being advocate, utilizing various strategies at family, community, and societal levels. Understanding gender-specific animal welfare contributions in an emergency response setting narrows knowledge gaps and provides WCAGs and animal welfare-related public, private, and not-for-profit sectors with evidence-based strategies for emergency response planning improvements, supporting healthy and sustainable human-animal bonds in the current COVID-19 pandemic and future extreme events.

Keywords: Animal emergency healthcare; COVID-19; Human-animal bonds; Metro vancouver; Women companion animal guardians.