Working With Animals – 3 Careers With Animals You Might Not Have Thought About
The most obvious career that comes to mind when you think of working with animals is to become a veterinarian. But there are many other careers you can pursue that will allow you to make a living working with animals—careers you may not have even considered. I will discuss 3 of them in this article.
1. Dog Grooming – If dogs are your passion, you might consider getting into dog grooming. This career only takes a few months of initial training, which you will then apply and expand once you are employed at a visor shop.
Grooming dogs is a great way to use your passion because the passion and love you have for dogs will help you be patient with squirrels, go slow and quiet with timid ones, and be proud of the end product of a well-groomed dog .
If you want a career working with dogs, it is very rewarding, requires minimal training, minimal financial responsibilities to obtain an education, and provides an income that will be consistent and sustainable. It’s also relatively easy to find work at a pet store, grooming shop, or boarding kennel in almost any city, and it’s the kind of career you can one day turn into your own business.
2. Pet Sitting – This is a career that is great for anyone who loves all animals. It’s also great for a single person who may not have a pet of their own. With this career, you can literally spend your life moving from home to home as a caregiver for families who are on vacation or out of town for whatever reason. You can also simply do home visits where you will go to the home 2 or 3 times a day to care for pets left there while their family is out of town.
This career does not require any special education, but the more experience you have with animals, the better. What it does require is maturity, reliable transportation, some type of insurance to protect you if something happens to an animal in your care, and a strong sense of responsibility.
Although most kennels are great places to leave a pet, most pet owners would prefer to keep their pets at home when they can’t take them with them on trips. I think they may believe that by leaving the pets at home they won’t feel left out.
Pet sitting can require care for outdoor animals as well as indoor pets. There may be horses, cows, chickens, etc. that will need feeding and watering, plus you may be asked to do yard work, water plants and other odd jobs depending on how long the family will be away . So you must be willing to do other tasks besides just taking care of the animals.
This job really requires a lot of responsibility and can take a little time to get started. A job-hunting suggestion other than just advertising might be to go to pet care stores and veterinary clinics in your area and ask if they know of anyone who would like a pet sitter. Of course, leave your business cards in these places too. Once word of mouth spreads that you’re a great pet sitter, even willing to clean the house before the owners return, you may find yourself having to turn people away because you’re booked up months in advance.
3. Animal Cruelty Researcher – This is a career you might not have thought about. However, if you love animals and want to help those in situations of abuse or neglect, this may be something you will excel at. This is certainly not a career for all animal lovers because there are many very unpleasant things that you will have to deal with and not everyone can handle these situations.
The best way to start this career is to first volunteer at a local animal shelter. There you will see how animals act when they are scared, abandoned or mistreated and which may not trust strangers. You’ll know if it’s something you want to get seriously involved with or if you’d rather go in a different direction. Gaining experience in a veterinary clinic would also be helpful, as would working or volunteering in any position where you deal with animals as well as people.
The requirements to become an animal cruelty investigator will vary from state to state, so the best way to find out what your state’s requirements are or to talk to someone at your local animal control or law enforcement office authorities, or search online. Most states will require you to complete basic law enforcement training or already hold some sort of law enforcement position.
It is a career that can be very rewarding, but it can also be extremely brutal in terms of the conditions in which you may find animals, the fact that there is some danger in this career and the fact that you cannot save all the animals. You’ll be dealing with all kinds of people, some who intentionally mistreat animals, others who simply don’t know how to care for them. So you will need to be able to control your temper and communicate calmly with people. The most positive aspect of this career is that you will make an impact on the problem of animal cruelty by making your city a safer place for animals to live.
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