Animals in public service: A narrative inquiry

Abstract

Birds, cats, dogs, and horses are some of the creatures that have collaborated with humans in delivering public services. This assertion is known but insufficiently examined. To bring animals into the public affairs discourse, this article defines public service and employs a narrative approach to examine animals working with people in service delivery. Animals are shown to satisfy essential public needs—from helping to win wars to policing streets to providing support for people as diverse as nursing home residents and occupants of the White House. Animals also make significant contributions to public service by being inspirational, demonstrating how mutual effort can accomplish goals, advancing the concept of empathy, bringing out the importance of character ideals, spurring innovation, and generally adding value to the public administration ecosystem. These findings support future research to understand the nature of human-animal cooperation in achieving societal objectives.