Careers working with animals

[Anonymous]

My teen REALLY wants to have a career working with animals on some level, and it really is her passion. However, I have zero clue where to guide her to. What are some ideas for a career with animals that earn a decent salary and are desirable?

[Anonymous]

I literally just suggested to my DD she look into training seeing guide dogs.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Police officer.
They work with dogs and horses.

[Anonymous]

Not too many. I would just tell her she could house sit the animals as a side gig.

[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.

This is exactly why I did not become a veterinarian. I love Animal so much, but I could not see myself having to put one down, making the hard choices and losing animals. It would’ve been too much heartbreak for me. I admire those who can compartmentalize, but you have to know yourself to know if you’re one of those people.

[Anonymous]

My daughter is in a program at Delaware Valley University for a Zoo Science degree. It's not vet med or Zoology, but geared towards working in zoos (think knowing how to design appropriate enclosures/habitats, daily management, conservation).
In the past, there have been 35 spots for the program and it's competitive. That being said, I'm not overly impressed by the quality of the university. Shabby broken dorms, crappy first year Biology and Chemistry professors and overall lack of quality.
She wants to work with zoo animals and in conservation versus a small animal vet so she's committed to the degree program.
It's worth checking out the degree program since there are others like it out there too.
My daughter has wanted to work with animals since she was a little kid and she's never waivered.

[Anonymous]

Animal Control

[Anonymous]

My teen daughter, who loves animals, refuses to be a vet because most animals hate their vets.

There are lot of animal-facing jobs that don't pay well.

I am a research scientist working on model organisms to study genes in a more compact system than humans, and have basic knowledge of animal biology.

I have explained to my daughter that there are vets, or animal biologist researchers, who are not directly animal-facing, but more on the management or research side (in labs we often don't work directly with animals, but we use tissue samples for our research).

Or she might do something else entirely, and just be a responsible pet owner and foster, which is what we do right now at home. That works too.

[Anonymous]

She should look into colleges that offer degrees in Animal Behavior or Zoology.

A friend got an equine science degree, but shifted gears to work with dogs. She has her own dog training business and loves it.

Other career paths:
Animal psychologist
Police dog or guide dog trainer
Zoologist- there are obviously zoos as an option, as well as government wildlife preserves and nonprofit animal sanctuaries

[Anonymous]

As others have discussed, the obvious answer is veterinarian. But I couldn't do it -- the cruelty and neglect you would see all the time isn't something I could take.

The really amazing jobs -- like octopus researcher/trainer at Monterey Aquarium, are almost impossible to get, pay very little, and may require a Phd.

I have a friend who quit practicing law to work as a dog trainer -- she loves it. Makes a lot less money than she did as a lawyer though. She'll tell you she spends more time training dog parents than training dogs. And you have to constantly hustle for clients. Animal behaviorists make more, not sure how you become one.

[Anonymous]

If your child likes research and studying animal behavior, another path could be primatology. I have friends who had studied it at graduate school after anthropology or biology BAs.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

I would try volunteering with an org that matches dogs/animals with wounded warriors/veterans. Like a puppy raiser or animal shelter.

Maybe also volunteer at an animal sanctuary to make sure they still want to pursue that path.

[Anonymous]

To do really cool stuff, you need a PhD in Zoology.