Understanding Compassion Fatigue
Published: 8 December 2025
Compassion fatigue affects up to 86% of animal care staff at some point during their careers and arises from repeated exposure to emotionally challenging situations. It can lead to exhaustion, reduced empathy, stress, and burnout, affecting both staff wellbeing and animal care. Our Culture of Care Committee is focusing on ways to recognise, prevent, and reduce compassion fatigue across the university.
Compassion fatigue affects up to 86% of lab animal workers at some point during their careers. It is a condition of caregivers that is characterized by physical and emotional exhaustion as well as sometimes a change in the ability to feel empathy. It stems from repeated exposure to emotionally challenging, stressful situations that call for empathy towards other beings whether human or animal.
Compassion fatigue can include elements of perpetration-induced traumatic stress (distress related to causing trauma to others), secondary traumatic stress (distress related to viewing the trauma of others), and burnout. Symptoms of compassion fatigue can include exhaustion, depression, anger, frustration, anxiety, and cynicism. It can also cause chronic physical ailments leading to isolation, absenteeism, hopelessness, difficulty performing tasks, difficulty sleeping, nightmares, invasive thoughts, substance abuse, and more.
Compassion fatigue can have a hugely negative impact on the lives of animal caregivers as well as the care animals receive. Because of this, the Culture of Care Committee is currently focusing on ways to reduce compassion fatigue across the university. Find out more on our news and events pages.
First published: 8 December 2025
<< In focus
- Our pages on compassion fatigue for more in-depth information, resources and ideas on how to combat it.
- The 3rs collaborative: explore the tabs for some more background on compassion fatigue, what signs to look out for and some self-care tips.
- Suffering in Silence: a recent article in Science about the impact of compassion fatigue, highlights that this is a common issue that effects many carers.