Designing for Shared Spaces: An Approach to Enhancing Animal Welfare and Foster Human-Animal Connections Through Compassionate Design
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Abstract
The provided research conveys the problems being faced in animal shelters that were
influenced by COVID-19 and how it impacted the overcrowding rates driven by the rise in pet
relinquishment numbers and lack of social response by humans. Due to the lack of proper
awareness and standards for shelters, animal welfare is not being observed, causing placement in inhumane environments, triggering severe stress, and causing mental/physical deterioration.
Animal welfare is suffering because of the lack of human response for animal life. These
situations that are impacting animal well-being have greatly increased because people are less
willing to connect to animals and shelters. The building proposal being presented is for a
properly configured animal shelter that is designed to promote healthy and stimulating living
spaces for cats and dogs, offers proper spaces for shelter employees to perform daily operations, and spaces designated for human-animal interaction that provide benefits to the welfare of both groups.