Animal Welfare Professionals

Hello All,

I have been an emergency dispatcher for 11 years and I have been unsatisfied in my career for quite some time.  I am actually very unhappy with my current position.  No room for growth and law enforcement doesn’t encourage having a heart at least not at my agency.  It is considered a sign of weakness.

I am passionate about the welfare of animals and I have a job interview for an animal care specialist position next week.  I haven't felt so encouaged and excited in quite a while.  Is there any feedback any of you working with animal care can provide?  I truly feel this is where I need to be and just want to make a living doing what I enjoy vs making a living because it pays well yet I’m miserable.

Thank you all in advance!

Hi, my name is Kim and I think I can help you with your response as I was a police officer for 14 years prior to getting into animal rescue.  It takes a certain kind of heart to work in human or animal welfare (thank you for doing the work you did as a dispatcher you were the lifeline for many!). Clearly you have the heart for both people and animals.  You will learn many of the skills you developed over the years as a dispatcher are going to be the same set of skills that will make you an excellent candidate for the job your applying for.   Communication, follow thru, ability to make quick and important decisions are just some of the skills you have.  Any employer in the animal welfare industry will be lucky to hire you because of the experience your dispatching has given you.   Go in there with confidence, share with them the work you've done, the things you've learned and set of skills you now have because you were a dispatcher.  Best of luck and thank you for your service as a dispatcher.  You ladies and gentlemen are the unsung heros and sheros of law enforcement!

CJ and Fearless Kitty,

Thank you so much for your encouraging words.  I truly appreciate your input.  Yesterday was my job interview for the Animal Services Specialist position.  I feel the interview went well and I conveyed how my skills as a dispatcher can be applied at the shelter.  This is a County position and I could become an animal control officer or supervisor in the future if I desire.  I just felt a breath of fresh air being in an environment with people who seem to be on the same page working together, moving around, handling a variety of different tasks.  

My current dispatch position is so cut throat and anxiety inducing.  11 years later I’m still only a dispatcher because my agency refuses to promote dispatchers to a supervisor position.  They prefer to have lieutenants (who have never dispatched) supervise us.  I feel it’s just another way to keep us stagnant.   Sitting in a chair stationary for 12 hours just waiting for a caller to bitch and moan is not a good time.    I want more and have more to give.  Public Service and animals makes me happy.  If it’s meant to be then I hope I get the job.  I should hear by the end of the week and I will keep you ladies posted.  I made sure to thank the hiring board for their service.  Because of them I have my two dogs.

Fingers crossed for you! CJ thank you for your kind words - Arizona is lucky to have you!

I echo what Kim says!  Please keep her as a friend and mentor!  She is one of the best in Arizona!  

You have a great background for the work you a ARE going to  see hard things and be faced with situationns that are going to call to your heart.   We only work with agencies that vet their clients because we want to help those who are in crisis that are willing to fight to get back on their feet - as opposed to homeless who will take the bag of food and sell it for drugs, alcohol or a movie ticket. There just isnt that much food to go around, so this is our piece of non-profit business.  Our boundary.  We were the second food bank in the Valley of the Sun - 126 miles across.  Now there are five. 2 of the five have a founder who are dangerously close to burning out, because of human abusers. The founders only want to do operations. They don't understand the business of running a non-profit, they dont have clear boundaries, they dont have a good volunteer programs so when them are gone/sick, nothing happens. Are you prepared for hard choices?  The person who ruined a dog with creating bad behavior who now wants to return the now difficult to adopt dog, or the too sick to live- animal, or the well meaning volunteer that constantly does unsafe practices because of the cute doggie (or kitty) that she wants to treat like her pet, gets bit, and then wants to sue the agency and you for her injury...

There are always problems, challenges, tests for the heart.  There are so many rescues that will let you go the extra mile, then claim ignorance if something happens.  We have one large shelter, that I have never heard a negative voice for, then another that has a reputation for money grubbing, not a good team player/doesnt play well with other has killed (euthanized) animals under questionable reasons... so be sure that you do your due diligence and if you decide to work for it anyway, for the opportunity to get into the industry, stay attached to this forum for guidence/advice and set clear rules boudaries and limitations with your heart to not get burned out or fatigued!  We need people like you!

CJ and Fearless Kitty,

Thank you so much for your encouraging words.  I truly appreciate your input.  Yesterday was my job interview for the Animal Services Specialist position.  I feel the interview went well and I conveyed how my skills as a dispatcher can be applied at the shelter.  This is a County position and I could become an animal control officer or supervisor in the future if I desire.  I just felt a breath of fresh air being in an environment with people who seem to be on the same page working together, moving around, handling a variety of different tasks.  

My current dispatch position is so cut throat and anxiety inducing.  11 years later I’m still only a dispatcher because my agency refuses to promote dispatchers to a supervisor position.  They prefer to have lieutenants (who have never dispatched) supervise us.  I feel it’s just another way to keep us stagnant.   Sitting in a chair stationary for 12 hours just waiting for a caller to bitch and moan is not a good time.    I want more and have more to give.  Public Service and animals makes me happy.  If it’s meant to be then I hope I get the job.  I should hear by the end of the week and I will keep you ladies posted.  I made sure to thank the hiring board for their service.  Because of them I have my two dogs.

That's exciting! I hope this job works out, but if not, I encourage you to keep looking for something that fuels your passion. Pursuing continuing education through things like webinars (Maddie's Fund and ASPCA Pro both have great ones!) and/or the Animal Shelter Management Certificate through the University of the Pacific could also help you build your skills for an animal welfare position. Good luck! 

Hello Karen,

Thank you for the encouragement and the resources you provided.  I’m currently on the night shift and I’m looking to further educate myself in this field so I can be better prepared when interviewing.  I saw the courses offered through UOP and I’m signing up for a few.  If I don’t hear back from my last interview I’m going to volunteer at their shelter so I can at least get some hands on experience under my belt.  I’m determined.  Thank you again for the info. 

Little late to this one. But congrats on following your dreams! I really hope you get the position but if not, don't be discouraged. You mentioned that you would start volunteering if you weren't offered the position and that's great! Volunteering is definitely an excellent way to get some hands-on experience and also a bit of a way to get your foot in the door for the next time a position rolls around. Your background as a dispatcher is certainly a plus. Anyone that can operate calmly under stress would be an asset at a shelter. 

Resources to look at for readying yourself and for your own education (and maybe areas in your field of interest!), anything by Dr. Sophia Yin. You can find her on YouTube. She was an amazing woman who liked to educate others on low-stress handling techniques for working with cats and dogs. She was a vet and an animal behavioral specialist, and a lot of what she taught is very useful in a shelter environment.

Reading up on things like cat and dog body language would be extremely helpful as well. My shelter created tons of playlists for training, practicing skills, and informational resources: https://www.youtube.com/user/willamettehumane/playlists. My advice for looking up training/informational videos on YouTube: be wary of anyone who doesn't promote fear free training. 

As for more personal and introspective feedback: just preparing yourself for the reality of the position and of the field as a whole. As I'm not sure what the background of the shelter you're applying for is, I can't give you specifics but any rescue/shelter work comes with it's own unique stress and emotional challenges. Uncaring owners, abuse/neglect cases, sometimes hoarding situations, and sometimes euthanasia. Compassion fatigue and burnout are real issues and can hit those in the animal care field particularly hard. I'm lucky enough to work at a shelter with a high live release rate of our animals here. But the times that it doesn't work or the outcome is bad stick around. Even if there isn't anyone to "blame". Sometimes especially if there isn't anyone to "blame", no one to fault, and no reason other than it's a bad situation all the way around. 

One particular instance hit me hard, especially since I was relatively new. There was no one to blame, nothing that could have been done to prevent it, but I wanted to be angry. I finished out my shift and went home.

Then I had an emotional freak out/break down. I seriously contemplated quitting that night. 

Obviously, I didn't quit. But that was sort of a trial by fire moment for me, of "can I really handle this? Can I keep doing it if there are going to be other situations like this?" And I found that I can. There's still stuff that sucker punches me, moments where I have to tap out and take a break, but that's okay. No one here expects anyone else to be super human, to hold all the emotional impact in.

I'm absolutely not trying to scare you off or portray the field of shelter work as this emotional nightmare because it's really truly not. It hurts sometimes and it's supposed to; the numb sensation of "this doesn't bother me, I can handle anything" is actually pretty unhealthy. Knowing how to handle the hard stuff, feel it but not wallow in it, is the key. I love my job and the good outweighs the bad by far. I get to do good work with some pretty amazing people, many of whom have become really good friends of mine. 

So my final advice, if you haven't found a good routine of de-stressing and decompressing, start now. Keep a journal, go for a walk at the end of every day, take up a hobby that has nothing to do with animal care, etc. And have fun!

RachaelIF,

thank you so much for such useful information and encouragement.  I did not get the position I interviewed for but I will not let that stop me.  I’m moving forward with volunteering because it will make me feel useful.  I’m staying positive and continuing to educate myself on animal welfare matters.  I’ll be a stronger candidate during the next interview and hope to gain enough experience to place me in an environment where I can be most effective.  This is such a great site filled with kind hearts.