Sorry if you've answered this before. Could you tell me how you got your job? Did you have any certain qualifications that made it a sure thing? And I'm kind of confused as to whether most shelters actually have employees or if they're all staffed by volunteers? I can't foster or own animals due to my rental situation and I'm not really good at anything vet related (at least, I'm not good enough to get through school for it) so I'm trying to see if there's some other way I can work with animals
hello!
Turn-over at jobs like mine are super high, so it’s not hard to find a similar one. You can look for similar jobs at shelters, kennels, doggie day cares, boarding facilities, rescues, and vet offices. tbh, all you really need is a willingness to clean up a LOT of animal waste. 90% of any animal care job is just... cleaning up poop and pee. you can look for something called kennel technicians, kennel assistant, or kennel attendant.
Getting into the rescue was a bit trickier, since it required more trust building. I had to work my way in, more or less. Becoming a behaviorist was mostly just a matter of research, research, and more research. I shadowed a far more experienced behaviorist until she felt I could work solo. There are programs for it---- Animal Behavior College offers one. But stances kinda vary on how good it REALLY is.
Shelters do have employees, although we still rely heavily on volunteers too.
I think it helped that i have a degree in microbiology with a focus on zoonotic parasites, but it wasn’t strictly necessary she was far more interested in my work with exotic animals, any experience i had in shelter volunteer work, and experience grooming cats/dogs (which was, admittedly, very little at the time; i had some experience as a bather).
