Physical health caregiver, mental wellness supporter, and overall well-being advocate: Women's roles towards animal welfare during the COVID-19 emergency response

Women's health-specific contributions in emergency response stages pertain primarily to family and community-based rescue and support-focused roles. As disasters affect both human beings and their animal co-inhabitants, comprehensive literature exploring women's contributions towards companion animal welfare in emergency response settings remains sparse. COVID-19-triggered public health mitigation strategies caused diverse challenges relating to veterinary medical service access, thus establishing a platform for a nuanced exploration of gendered roles vis-a-vis animal health and well-being during the initial COVID-19 emergency response period. This project employs a semi-structured interview approach to qualitatively investigate the roles, responsibilities, and experiences of twelve people, eleven of whom self-identify as women, who cared for animal co-inhabitants while seeking veterinary medical services during the COVID-19 emergency response in Metro Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. This research identifies three primary animal welfare-related roles that woman companion animal guardians (WCAGs) assumed during the COVID-19 emergency response period: 1) Companion animal physical health caregiver, spanning from nuclear to extended families and into the community; 2) Companion animal mental wellness supporter, associated with human-animal interactions in family/household, community, and veterinary clinic settings; 3) Companion animal holistic well-being advocate, utilizing various strategies at family, community, and societal levels. Understanding gender-specific animal welfare contributions in an emergency response setting narrows knowledge gaps and provides WCAGs and animal welfare-related public, private, and not-for-profit sectors with evidence-based strategies for emergency response planning improvements, supporting healthy and sustainable human-animal bonds in the current COVID-19 pandemic and future extreme events.


Introduction
Disasters, such as floods, wildfires, hurricanes, and pandemics, are destructive to humans and their animal co-inhabitants. Although gaining attention, disaster support and services mainly address human needs (e.g., shelter, food, water, evacuations, and rescues), while "failing to account for animals in disaster plans and/or to accommodate them in shelters" [1]. At family, neighborhood, and community levels, increasing companion animal guardianship informs and reshapes animal guardian emergency response initiatives. Furthermore, there is a demonstrated gendered division of labor during a typical emergency response. For instance, men generally assume leadership roles (e.g., rescuing disaster survivors and coordinating the emergency response), while women typically execute critical functions as caregivers during the emergency response period [2], and deliver reactive strategies to fulfill material, health, and social needs [3]. Integrating both a gendered lens into emergency response research, woman companion animal guardian (WCAG) emergency response behaviors, particularly pertaining to companion animal needs during the emergency response period, are under-researched. As healthy human-animal bonds contribute to both human well-being and animal welfare [4], understanding different gender-specific emergency response roles associated with companion animals moves beyond the traditional human domain, contributing to current disaster and emergency management literature, and informing related emergency response practices and policies.
COVID-19, which has precipitated catastrophic impacts on both humans and their animal co-inhabitants, presents a platform to demonstrate human-animal interactions during the emergency response stage. Pandemic-driven public health mitigation strategies (e. g., decreased social contacts and working from home where possible) galvanized individuals and families to adopt companion animals into their households to mitigate the related societal impacts (e.g., depression and isolation), vastly increasing animal guardianship numbers worldwide [5]. While these public health restrictions afford residents the opportunity to spend more time at home engaging with their animals [6], they also pose animal-care challenges relating to veterinary medical and behavioral service access, particularly during the COVID-19 emergency response stage [7]. The majority of pandemic-driven human-animal interaction studies have focused on measuring health and well-being benefits companion animals bring to their guardians and families [8,9]. However, a descriptive investigation of various emergency response efforts toward companion animals remains sparse within companion animal guardianship studies.
Western gendered norms typically socially position women as caregivers at the family/household level [2]. As such, this WCAG healthcare emergency response analysis will enrich the literature pertaining to women's emergency efforts, moving beyond the traditional human-only family. Hence, through a gender-informed lens, with particular attention to gender imbalances and structural biases in a disaster management context, this article employed a phenomenological approach to examine WCAG animal healthcare behaviors during the first wave of COVID-19 in Metro Vancouver, Canada.

Literature review
While various human-animal interaction benefits have been reported worldwide [10], during the COVID-19 emergency response stage, public health measures (e.g., social isolation and social distancing) revealed specific companion animal-associated social and health merits [11]. The following section applies a gender-informed lens to examine human-animal bonds in a disaster context.

Gender-specific emergency response efforts
While previous gendered hazards and disaster studies were primarily vulnerability-focused [12], the gender analysis scope has expanded to include current studies portraying women's diverse roles associated with their private and public responsibilities, such as caring for family and neighbors [3], supporting community development [13], and advocating for policy decision-making [14]. These studies either encompass the entire disaster management cycle [15] or focus on certain disaster stages, such as pre-disaster preparedness [16], emergency response [17], and post-disaster reconstruction [18]. When narrowed to the emergency response stage, studies demonstrate women's roles are perceived as a complementary streamlined effort to support, and even advance, traditional male-dominated urgent pursuits [15]. Notably, women's caregiving roles, such as humanitarian aid relief, and promoting disaster affected resident health and well-being, have attracted scholarly attention [19,20]. However, as disasters have destructive impacts on both humans and their animal co-inhabitants [21], women's animal caregiving roles have yet to be systematically examined.
Structural, social, economic, and political inequalities shape women's emergency response engagement. Within family and community settings, structural challenges arise under patriarchy [22], while the gendered division of labor creates social challenges with stay-at-home childcare, companion animal care, and household task expectations [23]. Meanwhile, wage inequality creates economic challenges [24] and gendered political stereotypes perpetuate a lack of political empowerment [25]. Notably as "gender is still excluded from much policy on disaster risk reduction" [26], these gendered challenges also pose policy-related barriers to women's emergency response decision-making engagement. Historically, emergency response efforts were managed by men, posing gendered challenges which presently continue to exist [27]. For instance, Danielsson and Eriksson, examined women's emergency supportive work during the 2014 Sweden wildfires, and discovered women were praised for following traditional gendered norms but criticized when performing male-coded tasks [28]. To address gender-related vulnerabilities and inequalities during the emergency response stage, researchers must overcome multiple systemic and social barriers to comprehensively understand women's contributions to disaster responses [29].

Human-animal interactions during the emergency response stage
Human-animal interaction plays an essential role in emergency response efforts [17,30]. For example, within the traditional animal assistance domain, Kussalanant and colleagues discovered canine assistants saved the lives of their guardians with (dis)Abilities when disaster hit, supporting guardian health and well-being and enhancing their coping capacity [31]. More importantly, companion animal guardianship shapes guardian risk perception [32], emergency decision-making [33], and overall mental health [34]. Specifically, studies demonstrate human-animal bonds directly influence guardian emergency evacuation behaviors, as both companion animal guardians [35]; [36] and farm animal owners [37] make animal welfare-driven decisions to either follow or ignore evacuation orders, acting according to their animal's best interests. COVID-19-driven research examines various human coping capacity enhancing animal-related social and health benefits, in response to the "loneliness epidemic," with its lockdowns, quarantines, and related public health mitigation measures [38,39]. These studies primarily examine benefits or influences from animal to human, rather than following a revised approach to explore human considerations on animal welfare. A gender-informed lens was rarely engaged in these studies.
During the COVID-19 emergency response, although gender-related vulnerabilities are widely reported [40,41], women's frontline and leadership roles, vital in supporting essential services operations in both male and female-dominated fields [42], such as public health policymakers [43], healthcare workers [44], grocery workers [45], and veterinary professionals [46] are predominantly overlooked. Furthermore, COVID-19-related social, economic, and public health challenges also affect human-animal bonds [47]. Specifically, as a female-dominated professional field [48], veterinary professionals have adjusted their service delivery models to protect both animal and human health and well-being [49]. Within the family scale, economic hardship and public health measures have increased animal guardian stress and posed companion animal medical, social, and behavioral needs fulfillment challenges [50]. These compounding stressors and barriers intensify women's vulnerable status, impacting their quality of life, which extends to their families and companion animals [51]. However, gender-specific investigations regarding animal emergency healthcare, from a WCAG perspective, are still developing.

Women's contributions toward animal welfare
Past studies illustrate various gender-specific benefits generated from human-animal bonds, including social, health, and wellbeing [21]. For instance, in women's homeless shelters, companion animals discernibly support vulnerable clients' social, psychological, and emotional well-being [52]. Companion animals also serve as preventive interventions for women with suicidal ideation [53]. These studies highlight benefits guardians obtained from their animals; however, the benefits derived from the affectionate relationship should be reciprocal for the companion animal [54]. Three decades ago, Herzog and colleagues identified women's attitudes towards animals as more humanistic than their male counterparts, as demonstrated through nurturing expressions, positioning them as more concerned for animal welfare than men [55]. Accordingly, Izmirli and Phillips they indicate women demonstrate greater animal-welfare awareness levels than men, primarily associated with animal experiment/testing, entertainment, sport, and fashion sectors [56]. Animal ethics drive women to be animal welfare sensitive across multiple domains, including the animal industry [57], Indigenous family knowledge [58], and animal product consumption [59]. Animal welfare awareness is strongly connected with animal healthcare, however, current studies in this realm are primarily administered in veterinary medicine and related health sciences [60,61], and are rarely examined from a guardian perspective.
Companion animal guardians provide a wide range of companion animal primary healthcare supports, such as communication, nutrition, and rehabilitation [62]. COVID-19-related public health emergency response strategies have increased guardian/animal engagement, drawing close attention to animal medical and behavioral needs [50]. In performing these companion animal-related healthcare provisions, human empathetic and compassionate traits engage naturally, increasing caregiver burden and generating potential mental health impacts by association [63]. While patriarchal gender norms dictate women are expected to perform most family care obligations [64], gender-specific evaluations regarding animal emergency healthcare during COVID-19 remain under-researched.
Concisely, gender-specific companion animal welfare roles remain under-researched during the disaster emergency response stage. COVID-19-related societal impacts present an opportunity to examine WCAG contributions towards animal welfare during the COVID-19 emergency response stage. Hence, this article centers WCAG perspectives, with the overall research question: how did women contribute to animal welfare during the COVID-19 emergency response?

Methods
In order to in-depthly capture companion animal guardian experiences from their unique perspective, this study adhered to a phenomenological approach [65], aiming to highlight WCAG participant experiential commonalities in relation to pursuing veterinary medical services during COVID-19. Accordingly, semi-structured telephone interviews with open-ended questions were designed to collect participants' detailed data pertaining to individual and collective challenges, unique needs, and prospective suggestions during the COVID-19 first wave in Metro Vancouver, British Columbia (B.C.), Canada. The Vancouver Humane Society (VHS), a community-based animal protection agency, supported participant recruitment [17]. Dalhousie University's Research Ethics Board approved this ethics application (certificate number: 2020-5371).

Settings and participant recruitment
Metro Vancouver, VHS's primary service area, is categorized as the most livable and third most populated and diverse Canadian metropolitan region [66,67]. From January 2020 to December 2021, congruent with many cities worldwide, Metro Vancouver was devastated by five COVID-19 waves [68], and the associated catastrophic short-and long-term community, resident, and animal co-inhabitant impacts. This community-based context provides a comprehensive view to explore WCAG plights and advocacy efforts to support companion animal health and well-being in an emergency context.
The research invitation was sent to a candidate pool of 29 potential participants who received VHS COVID-19 Companion Animal Veterinary Emergency Funds. Veterinary assistance programs are needs-based for individuals with a low-income status who require essential health care treatment for their companion animals, and without such aid, the companion animal will die [69]. The first 12 respondents were invited for a telephone interview. According to Guest and colleagues, this sample size meets the minimum requirement for thematic analysis [70]. Gender, as a demographic factor, was not included in the initial inclusion and exclusion criteria, nonetheless, 11 WCAG participants self-identified as women and one participant self-identified as a man. This gender ratio favors a gender-specific lens for data analysis and synthesis. Furthermore, among the 11 WCAG participants, three self-identified as Indigenous (27%) and eight as Caucasian (63%), three are aged 18-39-years (27%), while the remaining participants belong to the 40-59 age group (63%).

Data collection and data analysis
All 12 interviews, each ranging from 30 to 90 min, were conducted from December 2020 to May 2021, during the second and third COVID-19 waves in Metro Vancouver. As the first COVID-19 wave initiated tremendous memorable first-time experiences at the individual, family, community, and societal levels, the research team developed 14 open-ended interview questions to encourage interviewees to recall their experiences obtaining veterinary medical services during that particularly momentous chapter. These interview questions (see Ref. [71]) address participant demographics and companion animal basic information, challenges, coping strategies, and recommendations. The interviews (approximately 12 h in total) were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed via NVivo12.
As the pandemic (disaster) and gender are the two most significant factors shaping human-animal bonds in this study, two authors, who have received social work training with expertise in gender diversity, utilized both a disaster and gender-informed lens to independently code the 12 interview transcripts via deductive and inductive approaches. This deductive analysis process [72] assisted the authors in identifying gender-specific themes associated with animal welfare. They discussed and further elaborated upon WCAG-specific animal welfare contributions in three major categories: physical health, mental wellness, and well-being. Then, the authors collaboratively applied an inductive approach [72] to compose supportive narratives as different layers, supporting each catalog (See Fig. 1). The lone male participant narratives provide comparative insights, advancing the fundamental data analysis and interpretation.
The three blocks demonstrate the three themes that emerged in the data analysis regarding WCAG animal health care behavioral roles (physical health caregiver, mental wellness supporter, and overall well-being advocate). Under each theme, tri-level sub-categories were developed to provide detailed supportive information. Each subtheme was followed by different codes, which were used to identify related information from interview transcripts.

Findings
Based on the coding and theming structure shown in Fig. 1., findings are presented in three primary categories: physical health caregiver, mental wellness supporter, and holistic well-being advocate. Detailed narratives and analyses form three layers to elaborate upon each WCAG animal welfare contribution category.

Companion animal physical health caregiver
As discussed above, although women play a critical role in supporting animals in disaster settings, their companion animal physical health caregiving responsibilities have not been systematically examined. The following threefold roles associated with animal physical health and physical protection were identified: first responder, cross-generational caretaker, and extended care to the community.

First responder
While women hold multiple positions within the workforce, from a gendered division of labor prospective, unpaid caregiving roles continue to be socially imposed upon women [73]. One participant viewed herself as a "first responder" for a family member's sick companion animal. In her interview she described an incident whereupon arriving home from work she noticed her family member's companion animal was unwell. She "act [ed] quickly, put the work attire down, and got [the animal] into a carrier and just rushed to the vet." This participant naturally assumed dual roles, undertaking unpaid caring obligations in addition to her paid employment responsibilities. Thus, even after a long workday, this participant had the responsibility to identify and address the animal's urgent physical health needs. As COVID-19 was quickly spreading within the community, with then unknown impacts upon companion animals, this participant's notion of "being on alert" to emergency situations and crises also had the propensity for increased exposure risk. All the WCAG participants expressed concern for physical animal protection beyond their nuclear families. One participant adopted a street cat during COVID-19, conveying "I felt so bad for the [

kitten] being homeless. I brought it into my boyfriend's bedroom and I got the [kitten] into the vet the same day … the veterinarian said he didn't think that [the cat] would have made it another month on the streets."
According to Roy, animal rescue is a female dominated industry, with a volunteer and workforce composition of more than 85% women [74]. Moreover, women show greater willingness than men regarding adopting animals that may require special care [75]. Although animal adoption behaviors are perceived as riskier than before COVID-19, such as animal-human virus transmission [76] and financial burdens, this woman's actions demonstrate a gender-specific caring characteristic extending to physical animal protection, moving beyond typical gendered caregiving roles within the nuclear family domain.

Cross-generational caretaker
Canadian policies reflect individualistic neoliberal principles, rather than a collective societal responsibility [77], which on a micro scale translates to parents no longer assuming caregiving or financial responsibilities for their adult children. However, notably, more than half of the women participants in this study demonstrated a cross-generational caregiving role for their adult children's companion animals.
One participant described a fragile human-animal interaction pertaining to her adult son who was unemployed due to COVID-19triggered restrictions. His associated financial challenges caused a delay in providing necessary veterinary care until the animal's needs became urgent. This participant firmly perceived a responsibility to be engaged in the situation, despite a reluctance to financially support her adult son, with express concern for the cat as an innocent party: "I don't wanna support him [ ." She initiated a crossgenerational caregiver role and secured a reactionary measure to bring her son's companion animal to the veterinary clinic.
As previously noted, according to Western cultural ideology adults are expected to rely on themselves and practice self-sufficiency and independence, particularly once they have reached the age of majority [78]. This notion of independence is constructed through society's individualistic lens where various responsibilities (e.g., family, social, and economic) are considered individual duties, rather than family or collective obligations [79]. By way of the illustration above, this participant stated that while she did not intend to replace her son's companion animal medical care responsibility, her compelling sense of duty and sympathy propelled her interventions towards the sick animal.
Another participant expressed serious concern towards her daughter's ailing cat, which translated into cross-generational family obligation, advocating for the cat's future quality of life. This participant described the cat's lengthy struggle with long-term physical health issues and ultimately decided to financially support euthanasia. The participant indicated she expressed remorse to her partner for taking on the decision-making responsibility, however she did not wish the animal to endure further pain: Additionally, this participant's intervention eased her daughter's companion animal related financial and emotional hardship. As the previously mentioned Western cultural norms dictate, parents are not accustomed to extending caregiving responsibilities and support when their children become adults. However, during this unprecedented pandemic and the associated overwhelming stress, these participants' adult children demonstrate self-reliance challenges. The ensuing actions both defy neoliberal social norms and embrace socially constructed gendered caretaking roles, as these women take responsibility for their adult children's unwell companion animals. This gendered cross-generational caretaker role yielded constructive animal physical health solutions, which assisted in alleviating struggling adult children of their stress and other difficulties (e.g., unemployment and financial constraints).

Extended care to the community
COVID-19, on the one hand, separated society through social isolation and distancing; on the other hand, it united communities through caring, affection, sympathy, and solidarity [47]. COVID-19-triggered economic challenges not only impacted individual capacity to access veterinary services but also cut community-based service agency budgets, particularly not-for-profit organizations, which provide vulnerable animals and people with material and financial support [80]. As COVID-19 shaped their lives, women's gendered caretaking roles moved beyond family and friend circles into the broader community. The following two examples demonstrate WCAG community-based caring roles.
One participant donated her interview compensation to a not-for-profit animal protection agency. "I would like the [donation] to be made in [companion animal] name." This participant wished for her donation to honor her companion animal who had recently passed. She hoped this small donation could help more companion animal guardians access veterinary medical services.
Like other not-for-profit sectors, community-based animal protection organizations rely on government funding, earned income, and charitable donations to support their services [81]. However, due to widespread economic and health uncertainties, COVID-19 dramatically reduced charitable donations and diminished resident volunteering capacities [82]. One participant described her fundraising brainstorming process, carefully considering her social networks for potential donors who might be willing to contribute funds to support companion animal medical and other necessary services. This participant stated, "I was compiling a list of people in my mind [to see] if they can make a small donation." The first woman, who received financial support for her companion animal from the animal protection agency, returned this favor in kind by donating her interview incentive. The second woman encouraged more people to donate to help unhealthy animals, during a particularly challenging time. Both cases support research stating women are more likely than men to be generous with their time and money, and give more willingly of themselves in these capacities [83]. According to Dvorak & Toubman, women tend to demonstrate consistent altruistic contributes donating charitably more frequently than men, though notably they indicate donations are of smaller denominations, capturing the lower-socioeconomic status women hold in comparison to men [84]. These two participant examples align with the research, illustrating WCAGs extending generosity to their animal co-inhabitants, contributing despite their existing financially precarious position and the uncertain pandemic times.
In summary, WCAG physical health caretaking roles at the individual, family, and community levels illustrate strong leadership capacities and meaningful human-animal bonds. Their engagement in difficult decision-making, such as taking quick action, challenging conversations with family members, and navigating veterinary services during the pandemic, correlated positively with reinforcing companion animal physical health through rapid response, adoption, euthanasia, and donations. These animal physical health-specific efforts also draw attention to other aspects of animal health and well-being.

Companion animal mental wellness supporter
The One Welfare framework indicates guardian and companion animal health and well-being are interconnected [85]. Evidently, when companion animals suffer noticeable physical ailments, their guardians typically display empathy and compassion [86]. Past studies demonstrate gender plays a critical role in human-animal interactions [55]. Namely, women generally build stronger emotional attachments towards companion animals than men [87]. This gender-specific human-animal emotional connection is reflected among all women-identifying participants in this study, across family/household, community, and veterinary clinic settings.

Family/household -animal mental health concerns
One participant indicated her family members continued to rescue stray companion animals during the pandemic. She supported these compassionate actions and felt a sense of contentment knowing their generosity provides vulnerable animals with safety and fulfills their physical health and emotional needs.
"Yeah. I'm not the crazy cat lady, but I've got the crazy kids; my daughter keeps bringing animals home." This participant expressed concern for animal mental health, noting "they [animals] are innocent, they need help and love, like petting, good for their mental health." In turn, these rescued animals contributed emotional benefits to this participant's family: "I have an emotional connection to these animals, and these cats really bring a lot of joy to the family." Mental health, which were easily ignored at the family level, is critical to an animal health-related recovery [88]. All WCAG participants emotionally highlighted that animal mental health conditions were perceived as equally important to physical health issues. These participants' emotional responses toward their ailing companion animals typically translated into guardian necessary and compassionate care behaviors in family/household settings. In turn, recovered animals also provide guardian mental health benefits, as their return to health fundamentally alleviates guardian stress [89].

Community -animal mental health and community environment
At the community level, COVID-19-driven public health restrictions, such as working at home and community-based recreation amenity closures (including dog parks), prevented both humans and their animal co-inhabitants from regular peer engagement, particularly in comparison to their previous more frequent pre-pandemic interpersonal interactions [90,91]. These restrictions caused significant mental health impacts for both animal guardians and their companion animals [92]. WCAGs in this study reported their concern regarding animal mental health at the community level.
One participant shared her struggle during the initial COVID-19 restrictions, noting the associated routine changes and decreased socialization impacted her companion animal's mental health, which gradually manifested as maladaptive behaviors. "With the [

pandemic] restrictions, it makes it harder-with the covid now, it makes it even harder not only for humans but for dogs. Everything is changed [in the lock down] because parks [have closed]."
This participant further elaborated that working at home and social distancing enabled her to spend more time with her companion animal, during which time she became attuned to her animal's behavioral challenges and was able to provide related mitigation strategies, such as frequent checking and affection.
Public health protocols also triggered challenges for public transportation-reliant companion animal guardians, with ridership capacity restrictions and enclosed indoor public space-related health risks posing additional barriers to veterinary service access [7]. One participant outlined how she frantically researched different transportation methods to attend necessary veterinary appointments during the lockdown, noting "I cannot ask my friend to give us a ride because contact outside of households was not permitted." Additionally, this participant indicated that although her college student-related financial constraints typically position taxis as an unaffordable transportation option, her companion animal's stress, compounded with physical health urgency, ultimately propelled her to select this financially burdensome option: "I [do] end up either having to like find a ride or paying for like a cab or an Uber." This participant further acknowledged transportation-associated stress is equally undesirable for both sides of the human-animal bond, noting "it's just stressful on my cat too; she screamed all the way."

Veterinary clinics -animal mental health and curbside service
Veterinary appointments are typically stressful for both animals and guardians alike, with emotionally taxing conditions arising "in the waiting room, entering the examination room, on the examination table, and when approached by the vet" [93]. To mitigate these challenges before COVID-19, guardians would be welcomed to accompany companion animals into veterinary examinations, as guardian supportive and compassionate presence decreases elevated emotions for both parties [94]. WCAG participants in this study continue to demonstrate emotional concern for animal mental health, now extending beyond the household to veterinary clinic settings.
In a pre-pandemic context, one participant explained she would customarily accompany her animal to examinations to ease veterinary appointment-related stress for both herself and her companion animal, through their trusting human-animal bond. Although veterinary medical care is considered an essential service, as defined under COVID-19 public health measures, most veterinary clinics initially accepted emergency appointments only, later transitioning to "curbside service" [95]. Curbside service prevents guardians from accompanying companion animals inside the veterinary clinic, to protect both guardians and clinic staff from potential COVID-19 exposure. This WCAG participant then shared her emotional experience waiting outside the clinic during a curbside appointment, expressing concern for her companion animal alone in an unfamiliar environment: "It's a scary situation, and I'm sure the animal is not comfortable. I always think about the animal before myself. It's the animals that are suffering." While she emphasized appreciating continued access to veterinary care through curbside service, acknowledging the service adjustment as a necessary COVID-19 mitigation strategy, it did increase the emotional burden for both her and her animal when compared to previous pre-pandemic veterinary care experiences.
Curbside service model emotional impacts influence guardians and animals differently across contexts. As all WCAG participants indicated, with this forced separation impacting both human and animal mental health. The typical in-exam guardian/veterinary professional direct communication process disrupted and general uncertainties arise as guardians wait outside clinics for extended periods without animal condition knowledge; thus, guardian anxiety is understandably elevated in contrast to pre-pandemic appointments [96]. While it stands to reason a familiar clinic environment and pre-established veterinary professional/companion animal relationship may provide a degree of emotional security in navigating curbside veterinary services, as despite forced guardian/animal separation, familiar clinic staff, scents and a recognizable environment may provide a degree of comfort to animals while inside the clinic alone, the inverse may create additional emotional burdens for both guardians and companion animals alike. One participant expressed concern for her companion animal's emotional needs pertaining to accessing a new veterinary team during COVID-19 due to an emergency.

"[Going to the vet] is already a scary experience for [companion animals]. When [companion animals] know they're going and then to be taken away at the door and being brought in, it's traumatic."
This participant's explicit concern for her animal's emotional well-being, alone in an unfamiliar environment, in addition to the previous participant's separation-focused concerns, align with the literature regarding gender-specific emotional connections with companion animals while providing additional context to extend this gendered role beyond household settings to include veterinary clinic settings [52]. It is worth noting that curbside service, specifically pertaining to companion animal emotional challenges, was reported by all women participants in this study, while overlooked by the lone male participant; this sole participant highlighted curbside service in convenience terms only.

Companion animal overall well-being advocate
Public health restrictions' impacts on human-animal bonds, in combination with recent curbside veterinary service access experiences, encouraged these WCAGs to consider their animal's overall well-being in both pandemic and non-pandemic contexts, prioritizing their physical, social, psychological, and emotional needs. In doing so, the women participants in this study demonstrate effective human-animal welfare advancement strategies, particularly pertaining to advocacy, creative problem solving, and personal sacrifice, demonstrating ingenuity and leadership. Through a gendered lens, this section examines women's animal welfare advocacy roles at the family, community, and societal levels, and the associated COVID-19-driven lessons.

Family -"no fear to ask help"
The "stay-at-home" COVID-19-associated public health measure enables guardians to spend more quality time with their companion animals. This increased companionship affords guardians the opportunity to pay close attention to companion animal behavioral changes, and provide related interventions. The following three examples demonstrate the WCAG participants' problemsolving advocacy efforts within their family scope.
Immediately after realizing her cat's unusual behaviors, one participant problem-solved online, stating she "began to search all the information on the internet and wanted to figure out what was wrong with my cat." Another participant's COVID-19-triggered financial hardship posed a barrier to accessing costly veterinary care; however, concern for her animal's physical health prompted her to consult her mother, with whom she no longer resides: "I didn't actually know [there are some financial aids available to support the veterinary care], it only came out because my mom mentioned it." Another participant described that when she discovered her companion animal was not in good health, an initial fear to reach out for help appeared immediately. Out of necessity, she quickly overcame the fear and asked her family for support. In her interview, she explained she understood her feelings of discomfort were temporary and if she did not reach out to her family, "my pet would continue to suffer." She was aware her companion animal's well-being was more important than her timid nature or personal comfort as "not being afraid to kind of reach out for support" could ultimately contribute to improving the animal's health.

Community -"return the favor to help more"
Advocating for companion animal well-being encourages these WCAGs to problem-solve and advocate creatively, pursuing support beyond their familiar scope. The following three examples demonstrate three different ways of requesting and providing help in physical and virtual communities during COVID-19. The positive outcomes also encouraged WCAG participants to return the favor in kind, to benefit more animals in need.
One participant created an information sheet describing her companion animal's symptoms, including some images, and posted it in community centers, libraries, and other public spaces in order to pursue any available help: "I know there were not many people would see this because [the community center and the library] were closed. But I kept doing it and hoped someone could see it and contact me. I was really worried about my pet." Another participant took advantage of social media to widely disseminate her call for help: "I think social media is like a really, really important tool now. Especially through covid, it's become very prevalent and like a way of connecting." She received positive feedback from her Facebook post: "One lady replied to me that although she could not offer money, she could offer mental support because she went through the same process and understood how hard it was … One sent me a list of contact information of animal protection agencies where I could apply for some emergency funds." Another participant explained that she could not be aligned with a self-fulfilling prophecy because her nurturing characteristic was to help others. When this participant's animal was unwell, an online stranger advocating for animal well-being provided some helpful advice via social media. Later, when her companion animal had improved health, she felt compelled to return this favor in kind, to help other companion animals through online support communities "helping out another pet owner the way I was helped warms my heart that it is giving back a gift."

Society -"advocate pet insurance"
Companion animal veterinary services can be financially burdensome. Throughout this study, participants expressed challenges related to pursuing external financial support to access veterinary services during COVID-19. Navigating this difficult process motivated some women participants to identify possible proactive solutions to prepare for future unexpected emergencies in non-disaster scenarios.
Although all participants in this project were confronted with various COVID-19-driven economic challenges, one participant stressed that money was not necessarily a primary concern, particularly in terms of her companion animal's needs. This participant explained her companion animal's health and holistic well-being essentially determined her own quality of life. "I think the health and well-being and comfort of an animal should come before money." She indicated that always puts her animal's material and health needs before her own, and even sacrifices her own needs to provide for her pet.
Shocked by a recent veterinary invoice, one participant was eager to obtain more information regarding pet medical insurance: "I am planning to get pet insurance when my income becomes stable. COVID-19 wakes me up." She hopes other guardians can learn from her experience and is advocating for proactive planning for animal welfare: "I know they might have some [financial] challenges as I have been experiencing, please consider pet insurance. It is important to you and your pets." Moreover, she notes "I do not think that most companion animal guardians know that pet insurance exists." Adding, "I hope [animal protection] agencies and vets [veterinary professionals] could educate people how important pet insurance is and help more people get insurance for their pets." This participant's suggestion to raise awareness through pet insurance information dissemination and education would support guardians to proactively prepare for their companion animal's health needs. Pet insurance may enable proactive companion animal health expenditure planning to ensure animals have access to both routine and emergency health care and reduce certain financial burdens. This is a potential path to improved companion animal health through preventative care measures and timely emergency care, as financial considerations would not pose a barrier to pursuing veterinary services, allowing for veterinary professionals to address concerns before they become urgent.
These examples demonstrate WCAG participants applying what they learned from their recent COVID-19-related veterinary care experiences to advocate for animal holistic well-being by promoting a more robust animal healthcare protection system at the societal level. A Canada-wide survey highlights that over half of companion animal guardians have limited knowledge regarding pet insurance, and more than one-fifth of respondents are unaware it exists [97]. Assuming an animal welfare advocacy role, these participants promote public educational strategies to raise animal welfare awareness at the societal level.

Discussion
The three gender-specific roles identified above highlight WCAG companion animal welfare responsibilities and contributions during the COVID-19 emergency response stage. WCAG participant responsibilities and contributions during this precarious time suggest potential applications to augment gender-specific strengths to promote animal welfare society-wide, moving beyond the COVID-19 emergency response stage.

Gender-specific animal healthcare response behaviors
Examining WCAG animal healthcare response behaviors at the onset of COVID-19 initiated an opportunity to investigate genderspecific roles associated with animal welfare in an emergency context. As COVID-19 took hold in their communities, the WCAG participants demonstrated various approaches to managing animal health concerns within a novel emergency framework. The participants exhibited leadership qualities, extending animal health-related caregiving responsibilities from their nuclear to extended families, and more broadly into their community. Additionally, despite the challenging times, families continued to participate in companion animal adoption, both from the street (unconventionally) and shelter (conventionally), to provide animals with loving, stable homes that meet their material and emotional needs. As COVID-19 triggered economic hardships negatively impacted public, private, and not-for-profit organizations, in addition to providing financial support through donation, participants broadened their responsibilities and leadership roles to include community-based advocacy activities. Thus, while managing their personal caregiving responsibilities, these participants identified an urgent community need, strategized, and directed effort into supporting struggling community-based animal protection agencies.
In addition to physical health-specific efforts, past literature demonstrated that animal mental health is generally ignored [88]; however, the participants highlighted concerns for animal mental health. As discussed above, current human-animal bond associated mental health studies in a COVID-19 public health protocol context are generally conducted from an uni-directional approach, exploring companion animal contributions towards human mental health [8], while disregarding animal mental health overall. However, addressing animal mental health needs strengthens any mental health and other benefits a healthy companion animal could provide to their families in-kind. At the community level, public health mitigation strategies (e.g., stay at home and social distancing) jeopardize resident mental wellness. Accordingly, reduced animal socialization opportunities stemming from community recreation amenity closures (e.g., dog parks and pet stores) triggered WCAG participant concerns for companion animal mental health. Transportation to veterinary appointments and the veterinary clinic adaptive curbside service model further compounded these women's worries about their companion animal's mental health. Compared with the male participant, women participants illustrated a wider range of considerations by linking their animal's well-being with various stressful environmental dimensions.
In a COVID-19 emergency response context, these WCAG participant actions further reinforce gendered companion animal advocacy roles. At the family and community levels, these participants implemented various creative problem-solving oriented animal advocacy approaches. Problem-solving strategies include self-reflection to overcome fears surrounding asking for help, consulting family members for guidance, Internet searching, and issuing public help requests on virtual communication platforms (e.g., social media) and in physical spaces (e.g., community centers). These women's advocacy behaviors in conjunction with veterinary service access challenges ultimately prompted consideration for future disaster mitigation interventions (e.g., pet insurance). These experiential lessons motivated participants to develop mitigation intervention strategies through information and knowledge dissemination to educate other guardians to protect animal health through better preparation for unexpected emergencies, with potential associated prevention strategies through routine healthcare access without financial constraints.

Promoting animal welfare during COVID-19 and beyond
Although COVID-19 presents various challenges (e.g., financial challenges, social isolation, and curbside veterinary service delivery), the three distinct WCAG participant animal welfare roles provide valuable insights to better support companion animals and guardians, both during the current pandemic and in future extreme events. As women are categorized as a vulnerable group, they are typically disproportionately affected by disasters [98]. However, to support both their fellow human beings and animal co-inhabitants these women overcame their challenges, demonstrating numerous strengths in their effective limited resource use, and in creatively identifying additional resources. Recognizing their unique strengths and challenges contributes to creating meaningful changes to address gender disparities during the emergency response stage. The women participants in this study demonstrate sound animal physical health and mental wellness caretaker roles extending from family/household to community spheres, and ultimately broadening to societal levels. Moreover, the various challenges women participants experienced, in addition to their gender-specific innovative interventions (e.g., their advocate roles), further demonstrates their leadership in promoting health and over well-being by engaging their animals.
The identified woman participant-driven animal welfare advocacy initiatives call for a community-wide approach to raise animal welfare public awareness at the societal level. After receiving VHS financial support for urgent veterinary medical care, they were galvanized to assist animals and guardians in similar situations. With the aim to support unwell or at-risk animals in greater numbers, participants both provided financial support and guidance in kind, and encouraged community members to donate to communitybased animal protection agencies. These participants also considered animal mental wellness, moving beyond the typical physical health dominated animal welfare domain. Based on their pandemic practical lessons, these women wish to use their individual experiences to educate other animal guardians, especially relating to companion animal disaster preparedness and enhancing animal health and well-being during an emergency response. They propose community-based private (e.g., veterinary clinics) and not-forprofit (e.g., animal protection agencies) organizations widely distribute animal-specific disaster mitigation information and strategies (e.g., pet insurance) to educate the general public. The women participants emphasized that healthy companion animals will return the favor to advance animal guardian health and well-being.

Limitations and future research
Although the findings are promising, several core limitations are necessary to mention. As discussed in the literature review section, previous studies determined women's intersectional sociodemographic dimensions (e.g., age, sex, education, migration background and ethnicity, income, religious affiliation, marital and household status, and employment) inform their companion animal interactions. Including a shared low-income status [99], the primary VHSfunding-access qualifier, this project collected additional key demographic variables (e.g., age, gender, and ethnicity); however, in performing a gender-specific analysis, any detailed exploration into other demographic variables is limited. Regarding the lone male participant, the gender ratio of the study did not provide an adequate comparative sample size, therefore limiting the scope. This study's participants self-identified as female and male, excluding other gender identities such as non-binary, genderfluid, trans, and two-spirit, therefore limiting analysis to gender binaries, which does not permit for a comprehensive gendered analysis and interpretation. As described before, although international studies have fundamentally examined the correlations among gender, ethnicity, and low-income status [2,12,15], the data analysis did not illustrate the significant interconnections among these factors associated with the three main themes identified in this study. Hence, future research might engage with more demographic components to expand and elaborate upon a gendered analysis to capture how individuals of all genders and other intersectional identities contribute to animal welfare in an emergency context. Participants were recruited in Metro Vancouver, B.C. Canada, the city in which the human-animal interactions discussed in this study are rooted. This metropolitan's built environment [100] (e.g., transportation, animal-friendly open spaces, participants' housing status) and social environment (e.g., community participation and development, and community social networks) determine participant experiences and impact animal welfare [101,102]. However, these factors were not included in the original research design. Furthermore, these environmental characteristics limit final research findings and knowledge mobilization to other communities with different built and social environments. Additionally, participant experience summaries and interpretations were unavoidably constructed through the researchers' personal and professional understandings, limiting their ability to thoroughly comprehend individual participant circumstances or their Metro Vancouver, B.C. context. Finally, in using a qualitative approach, researchers are limited to describing women's roles rather than measuring statistics through quantitative research instruments due to smaller sample sizes, and therefore unable to generalize or verify the results. These limitations outline future research opportunities that could engage quantitative or mixed-method approaches to explore women's animal welfare contributions and leadership roles in a disaster context.

Conclusion
From a gender-informed perspective, this qualitative study examines WCAG animal care roles and responsibilities during the COVID-19 first wave, illuminating a need for improved emergency animal welfare support. The findings highlight women's animal welfare associated roles in an emergency context, namely as physical health caretaker, mental health supporter, and well-being advocate. First, as COVID-19 posed veterinary service access barriers and prompted veterinary service delivery model adjustments, women demonstrated quick and creative solutions to companion animal emergency medical needs, with their unpaid caregiving and advocacy actions spanning from nuclear to extended families, and into their community. Next, as public health mitigation strategies caused service access limitations and community-based service closures, WCAGs expressed concern for companion animal mental health in family/household, community, and veterinary clinic settings. Finally, companion animal quality of life and holistic wellbeing concerns galvanized WCAGs to advocate for improved pet insurance information dissemination. These three distinct roles emphasize gender-specific animal healthcare dimensions, as COVID-19-driven compounding effects impact both WCAG and companion animal health and well-being.
Lessons derived from examining WCAG animal healthcare behaviors in a COVID-19 context provide valuable insight into genderspecific human-animal bonds, and the associated gendered animal care responsibilities that arise during an emergency. Accordingly, these women-driven interventions call for related social service and support improvements at community and societal levels in order to better protect companion animals, fulfill their health and well-being needs, and enhance human-animal welfare overall. Future research might engage additional demographic considerations to elaborate upon gender disparities, contributing to animal emergency healthcare. A quantitative or mixed-methods research approach would more thoroughly measure WCAG animal welfare contributions and leadership roles in an emergency context, contributing to animal emergency healthcare in particular, and human-animal welfare more generally.

Ethics
The study was approved by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Ethics Board at Dalhousie University (REB number: 2020-5371).

Funding
This research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Canada, Partnership Engage Grants (Award: #1008-2020-0246). This research was also undertaken, in part, thanks to funding from the Canada Research Chairs (CRC) Program (Award# CRC-2020-00128). The funders of the study had no role in study design, data collection, data interpretation, analysis, or the writing of the Article.

Authorship contributions
HW conceptualized the entire manuscript. HW and RSB conducted data analysis. HW and RSB wrote the initial draft of the manuscript, CP edited. HW, CP, and RSB revised the manuscript prior to submission.

Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Data availability
The data that has been used is confidential.