Until every pet has a home: fuzzy finances in American animal rescue economies

Melissa L. Caldwell

Journal of Cultural Economy, 2025, vol. 18, issue 3, 367-385

Abstract: In the United States of America, caring for lost, abandoned, and abused animals, what is known as ‘animal rescue,’ is an expensive activity that entails significant infusions of financial resources. Despite the millions, perhaps even billions, of dollars that move through animal rescue, saving animals is an unpredictable venture that often results in failure. In order to save as many animals as possible and work toward a hopeful future of no more unwanted pets, animal rescuers rely on financial instruments and systems that are explicitly intended to manage uncertainty. Drawing on longterm ethnographic research among American animal rescue communities, this article examines the financialization of care in animal rescue with attention to the financial tools, institutions, and practices that are used by animal rescuers and the ways in which financial institutions and other businesses tailor their products to support animal rescue activities and their supporters.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/17530350.2024.2436882

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