Animal Welfare Professionals

I am the Shelter Manager at municipal shelter in Oklahoma. We are getting a new, much larger  Animal Shelter soon and with that we will be hiring more employees (specifically kennel techs and/or front staff) plus changing our look up.  I was curious to see what other Shelters have their employees wear and what you like or don't like about certain options especially when it comes to cleaning, but really I'd love any input.  We were leaning towards scrubs for them, but worry about cost and turnover for the kennel tech positions.

*Pictures would be super helpful for ideas! Thank you! 

#OrganizationalManagement

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samantha phillips
Moore OK Animal Shelter
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Hi Samantha,

All our staff is asked to wear long pants, closed shoes and a shelter staff shirt. We are not providing the shoes and long pants, but every employee gets a set of Staff T-Shirts. Employees are responsible to wash their shirts at home.  We do allow in addition to the shirts that identify a person as staff member, shirts that are coming from our merchandise store (employees get a discount when they buy from the store). In addition our medical staff has medical uniforms with the company logo. While the hiring /onboarding process new employees get informed about what they can and cannot wear and that there is no cleaning service.  I attached a photo with some examples of staff shirts we have, as you can see there are different types and colors. I personally like that we have different types / styles of shirts as it allows employees to wear what suites best for their working condition. Not offering a cleaning service or pants might be considered a disadvantage, but if clearly communicated from the start it should not cause an issue.

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Jasmina Sumanovic
Canine Behavior Manager
Palm Springs Animal Shelter
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We also require long pants, closed toed shoes, and a staff t-shirt.  We provide them with 3 new shirts per year.  The clinic staff has scrubs with our logo, but not personalized.  We keep an inventory of used shirts (returned to us upon resignation/termination) that we keep washed, in case someone gets dirty and needs to change. 

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Sandi Mercado
Shelter or rescue director
Citizens for Animal Protection
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Original Message:
Sent: 07-23-2023 10:39 PM
From: Jasmina Sumanovic
Subject: Ideas needed! What do you have your Shelter employees wear as their uniforms?

Hi Samantha,

All our staff is asked to wear long pants, closed shoes and a shelter staff shirt. We are not providing the shoes and long pants, but every employee gets a set of Staff T-Shirts. Employees are responsible to wash their shirts at home.  We do allow in addition to the shirts that identify a person as staff member, shirts that are coming from our merchandise store (employees get a discount when they buy from the store). In addition our medical staff has medical uniforms with the company logo. While the hiring /onboarding process new employees get informed about what they can and cannot wear and that there is no cleaning service.  I attached a photo with some examples of staff shirts we have, as you can see there are different types and colors. I personally like that we have different types / styles of shirts as it allows employees to wear what suites best for their working condition. Not offering a cleaning service or pants might be considered a disadvantage, but if clearly communicated from the start it should not cause an issue.

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Jasmina Sumanovic
Canine Behavior Manager
Palm Springs Animal Shelter
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Hi Samantha,

Our Kennel Techs are given STAFF t-shirts (long and short sleeved) upon hiring, and then get new ones issued on a yearly basis.  They are responsible for washing them themselves. They also have the option of wearing other "animal-welfare themed" t-shirts, or shirts from our retail store (they get a discount). They can wear either jeans, scrub pants, or leggings, which must be in good condition (no holes, etc.).  Our spay/neuter/clinic staff are issued scrub tops with our logo upon hire, and can also wear any of their own scrubs, scrubs pants, or leggings. Kennel techs and spay/neuter/clinic staff are to wear closed-toed shoes. Good luck on your new facility!

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Erin Hooks
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We wore staff t-shirts, jeans (with no holes, rips, or major stains), closed-toed shoes, and a nice slip lead to keep with us across our chest or clipped to our belt. The shelter provided 5 shirts, 1 sweatshirt, and the slip leads with a budget to replace them every 1-2 years. We had the shirts made by a local company. Anyone who left their job left their staff shirts behind and any that were in good condition were available to existing staff members if they needed extras. I believe the kennel staff also got one heavy coat since they had to be out in the elements to clean the outdoor portion of the dog kennels. I couldn't find a great picture of the back but attached are the pics I could find.  

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Marilyn Wheaton
Client Services
AnimalsFirst
Leesburg VA
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Our Board of Directors allocates monies for our staff to purchase new logo clothing every year. Full time employees will get $100 and our part staff will get $50. We have a patron of the shelter, that sells shirts, set up a store for the staff to pick and choose whatever shirts or hoodies that we would like.  Our staff will then wear the logo shirt and appropriate pants or shorts. It is pretty handy, and our personal clothes will not be destroyed by the animals or chemicals. 

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Elise Blue
NEMO Humane Society
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If you're going to buy scrubs, we use RMF Scrubs since they are inexpensive, and you can get them embroidered.   They also have polo shirts tees and sweats.  

We're part of the police department and originally, staff was required to wear polos and black jeans with a belt. Way too formal for kennel work!  We then switched to scrubs, top and bottom provided.  Then we switched to staff tees (from Custom Ink) and the tee shirts from our annual event, with staff providing their own pants.  They seem to be happy with that.  The tees are cooler than the scrubs in the summer.  Medical staff wear scrubs.  We have $2000 each year in our uniform budget, so I usually order shirts once or twice a year and light jackets as needed.

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Tracy Mohr
Animal Services Manager
City of Chico Animal Services
Chico CA
5308945630
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Our employees wear scrubs.

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Beth Gomez
Treasurer
It Takes A Village Spay and Neuter Clinic Inc
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Our medical team can use any scrubs to their liking. While the rest of the team wears logo printed tee shirts that passed out 2 x a year. Colors may vary on year and  logo changes. We also offer discounted merchandise when creating shirts for the public to purchase. They can also be used as uniform within the shelter. 

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Josiah Ortiz
Morris Animal Refuge
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We generally leave uniforms to the departments. A lot of our shelter staff wear a logo t-shirt (they are given several when they join and more as needed) and their choice of pants and appropriate footwear. We also started distributing logo hoodies on hire, which get a lot of use and helps staff stay recognizable in the cool months.  However, pull-over type hoodies can be problematic for bigger hair/hairstyles so a zip-up might be a better choice. In addition, if staff buy our logo merch they can wear that as their uniform. Medical staff wear their own scrubs. Field services does their own thing, of course. Other departments observe a loose business casual with a high degree of variation. We have some loose rules about offensive language, non-company logos, etc.

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James Pawlowicz
Humane Rescue Alliance
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Hey! 

At our facility each uniform is by sub department within Animal Services. For instance, our medical team all wear logo'd scrubs (in various solid colors). Our field officers wear black pants, black boots, and we recently switched from black tops to logo'd gray button downs.  Our shelter/kennel staff were black or khaki pants with green collared polo logo'd tops.  And then our operations team which includes our front desk, admin, and coordinators (foster, rescue, volunteer, events) wear business casual. 

Saturdays we are allowed to wear jeans in all departments except field/officers.

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Angellee Vincent
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Our medical staff wears scrubs. Care takers can wear what ever they would like as long as they have close toed shoes and are modest. During events the staff wear our logo. 

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Felicia Evans
Wellness supervisor/ animal manager
St. Francis Animal Sanctuary
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Our cat care assistants aka kennel techs wear scrubs. However, they don't have their own scrubs. We have a closet full of scrubs in different sizes so they come into work, change into scrubs, then change back into their clothes and put their scrubs in the laundry basket. To my knowledge, we've been using the same scrubs for years. The only time we bought new scrubs was an employee who didn't have scrubs in their size, so now we have larger scrubs on hand. You might have high turnover, but if you require them to change at work, you don't have to worry about scrubs going missing when they leave. 

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Maddie Corey
Simply Cats
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