Careers working with animals

[Anonymous]

I think being a top level showjumping groom is a cool, reasonably accessible job but in most cases you can’t have a family, a home or need to make decent money.

[Anonymous]

I work in animal sheltering, and I love this field. It's very hard, people get burned out - but you have the opportunity to do a lot of good. And you will work very closely with animals who really need you - and have the chance to turn their lives around.

Lots of low paying jobs in sheltering - but stick with it, and you can earn a decent salary. I'm on the fundraising side and earn $90k now.

[Anonymous]

My son is studying Animal Behavior at Franklin and Marshall. Many careers outside of the obvious small animal vet path. He wants to work in conservation and animal care.

[Anonymous]

Does she want to help animals or does she want to interface with animals? Those are by and large two different things. If she wants to help animals, consider a career in developing alternative proteins (e.g. plant,-based foods like beyond or impossible burger), working in policy (e.g. economics on the house or Senate ag committees, policy analyst at the USDA, aide for a sympathetic lawmaker), attorney for animal rights (many non-profits hire on this dimension), a policy analyst at the USDA (possibly she can work her way up to an ses position with political influence), or go into bioinformatics or computer science and learn about using AI in service of these other goals.

As other posters noted, most jobs that interface directly with animals (E.g. USDA, animal control, veterinarian, zookeeper, state departments of agriculture, fish and wildlife service) usually involve killing or hurting animals sometimes. It is my view (as a vegan mediumly hardcore animal rights activist) that sometimes the kindest thing to do for an animal is to kill it and that sometimes animals pose such a threat to human well being that I am grateful there are people willing to do these tough jobs. Maybe your daughter will bring a level of compassion to tough jobs like euthanasia or population control or disease control in such a way that the animals will be treated better than they otherwise would have. But in my view, if the goal is to help animals the most, introduce the idea that this might be accomplished best with careers that are less hands on. If that's her interest, I suggest she check out the website 80,000 hours to learn more about careers that help animals.

[Anonymous]

If I was young and single I’d be a professional groom. Sounds like fun to spend my days making horses look extra pretty and you get to travel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does she want to help animals or does she want to interface with animals? Those are by and large two different things. If she wants to help animals, consider a career in developing alternative proteins (e.g. plant,-based foods like beyond or impossible burger), working in policy (e.g. economics on the house or Senate ag committees, policy analyst at the USDA, aide for a sympathetic lawmaker), attorney for animal rights (many non-profits hire on this dimension), a policy analyst at the USDA (possibly she can work her way up to an ses position with political influence), or go into bioinformatics or computer science and learn about using AI in service of these other goals.

As other posters noted, most jobs that interface directly with animals (E.g. USDA, animal control, veterinarian, zookeeper, state departments of agriculture, fish and wildlife service) usually involve killing or hurting animals sometimes. It is my view (as a vegan mediumly hardcore animal rights activist) that sometimes the kindest thing to do for an animal is to kill it and that sometimes animals pose such a threat to human well being that I am grateful there are people willing to do these tough jobs. Maybe your daughter will bring a level of compassion to tough jobs like euthanasia or population control or disease control in such a way that the animals will be treated better than they otherwise would have. But in my view, if the goal is to help animals the most, introduce the idea that this might be accomplished best with careers that are less hands on. If that's her interest, I suggest she check out the website 80,000 hours to learn more about careers that help animals.

No they don't. Not even sure what you mean by "on this dimension."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My friend is a dolphin trainer with the Navy. She has an undergraduate degree in marine biology and every diving certification you could think of. It's such an interesting career and one I never would have thought of.

Awesome! I was going to suggest marine biologist, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The problem with careers working with animals is that usually kids who want them love animals and just want to be around them, but the careers in question almost always involve doing horrible things to animals and aren't really suitable for people who love them. Vet is an obvious one, but the vets I know have a lot of trouble with the painful choices that come with having to only treat animals whose owners can pay. Vet techs seems to have it a bit easier, but don't make much money. Likewise jobs like zookeeper or anything involving keeping animals means other difficult choices that most teens don't get yet. Jobs involving animal rescue typically pay very little if anything, and those that pay are few and far between anyway. So really, it may be a passion, but it may not be a realistic career choice if it comes from a cuddly puppy and kitten kind of place.

Of course, you don't want to squash her dreams, so maybe look into careers that touch on biology or environmental science - subjects that involve animal study and could lead in that direction but will give her a chance to see what those fields are really like before choosing a career path, and maybe provide some options.

Ha, that was exactly my reasoning at 14 when I realized that I didn't really want to treat animals - I just wanted to play with them all day long. I briefly entertained the idea of pet store owner, but decided just having pets would be enough.

[Anonymous]

Is your teen 13 or 17 because it makes a huge difference. So many kids at 13 want to work with animals or go into marine biology because it seems exciting on the surface. Most don't ever end up doing anything with animals in the end even if they were so passionate at age 13 or 14 about animals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does she want to help animals or does she want to interface with animals? Those are by and large two different things. If she wants to help animals, consider a career in developing alternative proteins (e.g. plant,-based foods like beyond or impossible burger), working in policy (e.g. economics on the house or Senate ag committees, policy analyst at the USDA, aide for a sympathetic lawmaker), attorney for animal rights (many non-profits hire on this dimension), a policy analyst at the USDA (possibly she can work her way up to an ses position with political influence), or go into bioinformatics or computer science and learn about using AI in service of these other goals.

As other posters noted, most jobs that interface directly with animals (E.g. USDA, animal control, veterinarian, zookeeper, state departments of agriculture, fish and wildlife service) usually involve killing or hurting animals sometimes. It is my view (as a vegan mediumly hardcore animal rights activist) that sometimes the kindest thing to do for an animal is to kill it and that sometimes animals pose such a threat to human well being that I am grateful there are people willing to do these tough jobs. Maybe your daughter will bring a level of compassion to tough jobs like euthanasia or population control or disease control in such a way that the animals will be treated better than they otherwise would have. But in my view, if the goal is to help animals the most, introduce the idea that this might be accomplished best with careers that are less hands on. If that's her interest, I suggest she check out the website 80,000 hours to learn more about careers that help animals.

No they don't. Not even sure what you mean by "on this dimension."

NP in this field - and I wouldn't say "many" but there are jobs in animal law. Both in the nonprofit sector and the private sector (small firms/solo practices). I've worked for three organizations with animal lawyers on staff now, and know a half-dozen animal lawyers in private practice.

[Anonymous]

Marine biology?