Abstract
Dairy caretakers experience a variety of occupational risks including stress related to performing euthanasia and making euthanasia-related decisions for cattle in their care. Few supportive interventions exist to help caretakers cope with euthanasia-related stress. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of weekly peer discussion sessions as an intervention to reduce euthanasia-related stress and grief in dairy caretakers. This study utilized scores from a modified pet-based bereavement questionnaire to assess the change in bereavement of caretakers in response to euthanasia-related stress in a non-treatment group (who did not attend peer discussion sessions, n = 7) and a treatment group (who attended peer discussion sessions, n = 15). Key findings of this study were that discussion sessions did not have a direct impact on the study outcomes as measured using a pet bereavement scale, as there was no difference in the change in bereavement scores during the 8 week study period between the treatment and non-treatment groups. Thematic analysis of peer discussions revealed that compassion towards dairy cattle is a prominent factor in areas of decision making, protocols, and training. Further studies should continue to explore how performing euthanasia and making euthanasia-related decisions impacts caretakers and what supportive interventions can reduce stress and grief.
Highlights
Research in other animal industries, including shelter and companion animal medicine, have identified the importance of providing outlets for individuals to cope with having to perform euthanasia as part of their job [12,26,29]. The intent of this pilot study was to implement weekly peer discussion sessions as a potential supportive strategy to provide dairy caretakers with an outlet to deal with grief and other feelings associated with end-of-life decision making and performing euthanasia on the dairy
The weekly peer discussion sessions did not change the level of bereavement of participants, the sessions allowed participants to share their feelings and ideas with each other
Despite there being no statistical difference in bereavement scores between treatment and non-treatment groups, thematic analysis provided further evidence that dairy caretakers have compassion for the dairy cattle they care for and that euthanasia is complex as it alleviates animal suffering but that it is an emotionally distressful decision to make and act to perform
Summary
Public Health 2022, 19, 2177 are not preventable [3,7] This environment, coupled with language barriers and lack of health insurance [8], plus inconsistent and limited training programs [2,3,4], makes these dairy workers a vulnerable population. Psychosocial factors such as relationships with management and the quality of communication with management have been identified as predictors of perceived job stress for dairy workers [7].
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