Project Brief

CDC guidelines on animals and pet safety for veterinarian and animal shelters are lengthy and written at a grade 15 reading level1 . Animal professionals, such as veterinarians, animal control, and pet shelters, need to adhere to these guidelines. Our goal is to understand how animal professionals are impacted by these guidelines and help rewrite the COVID guidelines to be more consumable by the general public.

While many people can foster animals now, there is still a monetary strain on individuals and families to care for pets and animals. In addition, many people are faced with the time commitment of caring for their families and working from home that they will not have the time to foster the pet. Some owners have given up pets in fear of being contaminated with the virus, and some pets have been left abandoned when their owners died of COVID-19.

Hypothesis: Animal professionals (veterinarians, animal control, animal shelters, etc) will see an influx of animal welfare needs that will be hard to meet once foster owners lack the time to volunteer and when financial needs increase.