Welfare of Shelter Animals
A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Animal Welfare".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 April 2026 | Viewed by 8
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
We invite researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to contribute to a Special Issue of Animals focused on animal welfare in animal shelters.
This Special Issue aims to problematize the concept of animal welfare in the shelter environment by including articles that tackle broader societal issues within the welfare framework. We hope to include articles that move beyond micro-level views of animal welfare by contextualizing the subject within a larger discussion about community, justice, and ethics. We especially hope to receive contributions from young scholars and scholars of color in order to include newer perspectives that could challenge our understanding of what animal shelters should be in the twenty-first century.
We welcome original research, reviews, and case studies that address topics such as (but not limited to) the following:
- Euthanasia;
- Class and race;
- Compassion fatigue;
- Staff and volunteers;
- Enrichment and beyond;
- Behavioral assessments;
- Gender;
- Ethics and justice;
- Breed popularity;
- Shelter medicine;
- Community outreach;
- Housing;
- Open adoption;
- Open and closed access;
- Trauma recovery;
- Sanctuary and safe havens;
- Overpopulation ;
- “Problem breeds”;
- Exotic animals.
Submissions that highlight cross-disciplinary approaches, social and cultural factors, community involvement, and the effects of policy and regulation on shelter outcomes are particularly encouraged.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Dr. Margo DeMello
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- animal sheltering
- animal welfare
- companion animals
- animals in the community
- overpopulation
- euthanasia
- class, race, and gender
- culture and society
- humane care
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