This dissertation critically examines the Prison Unit Pet Shelter (PUPS), an animal shelter built within Talbot Correctional Complex, a state prison in the US Gulf South. This prison-based animal shelter is a unique instantiation of the growing trend of animal programs being incorporated into prisons. Within the academic literature, such programs are often presented as evidence of a paradigm shift away from mass imprisonment in the United States, fostering a more ‘humane’ approach to penal policies, while also meeting key needs for both prisoners and animals. However, informed by critical carceral and organizational approaches, this research challenges these prevailing narratives. By employing a critical case study methodology, this research draws on data collected from in-depth interviews with various stakeholders, participant observations of shelter operations, and critical discourse analysis of organizational materials and media representations. The data gathered allows for a comprehensive examination of the discrepancies between the shelter’s discursive portrayals and its operational realities. The findings indicate that while PUPS is promoted as a model of progressive penal reform and effective animal service delivery, its implementation privileges institutional control and legitimacy over positive outcomes for inmates or animals. Not only are these outcomes not prioritized, but the shelter’s operation, intricately tied to the prison’s control mechanisms, perpetuates status quo penal structures that both hinder rehabilitative goals and obstruct effective animal care. This study contributes a critical perspective to discussions on prison animal programs, emphasizing how these initiatives often serve symbolic and operational purposes that support existing carceral ideologies and practices. It argues that programs like PUPS offer a limited and flawed response to broader systemic issues that are embedded in neoliberal society and its prison systems, inviting further scrutiny of prison-based animal programs within the broader discourse of penal reform.