Moral injury in animal care workers: prevalence, pathways, and phenomenology in a cross-sector sample (opens in new tab)

IntroductionMoral injury, the psychological harm resulting from events that violate one’s deeply held moral beliefs, has been extensively studied in military and healthcare populations but remains largely unexamined among animal care workers.MethodsThis cross-sectional survey of 291 animal care workers across six sectors (rescue, shelter, animal control, veterinary medicine, volunteer/foster, and other) provides the first empirical prevalence estimate of moral injury in this cross-sector popu...