“They’re Friends to Us”: Animal-Assisted Crisis Response Experiences of Mass-Shooting Survivors

Animal inclusion into crisis response has expanded mental health options for survivors of such events. This inclusion, known as animal-assisted crisis response, promotes human-animal interaction as an assistance in the human healing process. Using qualitative interviews, student survivors of the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL on February 14, 2018, described their experiences of engaging in animal-assisted crisis response with therapy dogs after the event. An inductive coding process uncovered primary themes that included how participants viewed the presence of the therapy dogs, how they received comfort and coping support through that presence, and how their experiences influenced their perception of the human-animal bond. Implications for implementing animal-assisted crisis response following a mass traumatic event are provided.