Abstract
Abstract To better understand the psychological effects on humans of working with distressed non-human animals, I set out to understand the professional quality of life experienced by this group of workers. Measures included compassion satisfaction, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress. An online survey-based cross-sectional correlational design was employed to survey 340 animal rescue workers. The survey consisted of items assessing demographic information (gender, age, geographic location), type of work performed (single or multiple caring roles), exposure to euthanasia, in-home fostering of animals, and whether the work was salaried or voluntary. The results of the present study may prove useful for both animal rescue organizations and animal rescue workers who may be experiencing distress as a result of their work. Recommendations for future research include a focus on the effects of exposure to euthanasia and the home fostering of rescue animals.
Highlights
Stories of non-human animal abuse and neglect are common across worldwide media today
While the heartfelt connection with animals is clearly evident in their work, what causes an animal rescue worker to experience immense joy and satisfaction is very often the same thing that leads to the development of work-related psychological experiences such as lowered compassion satisfaction, increased burnout, and increased secondary traumatic stress
Compassion Satisfaction, Burnout, and Secondary Traumatic Stress Associations The three Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQOL) subscales accounted for independent variance in the total questionnaire and measured separate constructs (Stamm, 2010)
Summary
Stories of non-human animal abuse and neglect are common across worldwide media today. What is typically distressing for an individual to view on social media or in the newspaper is something that animal rescue workers are exposed to on a regular basis. Foster carers may fail to rehabilitate an animal that has been exposed to severe cruelty, and these carers may suffer psychological distress. Those working or volunteering within animal rescue most typically take on such work due to a deep-seated passion for the care and protection of animals and as a consequence are paradoxically exposed to the horrific abuse and cruelty of those same animals on a recurring basis. While the heartfelt connection with animals is clearly evident in their work, what causes an animal rescue worker to experience immense joy and satisfaction is very often the same thing that leads to the development of work-related psychological experiences such as lowered compassion satisfaction, increased burnout, and increased secondary traumatic stress
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