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Animal Caretakers


Overview

Animal Caretakers

Introduction

Animal caretakers, as the name implies, take care of animals. The job ranges from the day-to-day normal activities for a healthy animal to caring for sick, injured, or aging animals. The daily animal caretaking routine usually involves feeding and providing drinking water for each animal, making sure that their enclosure is clean, safe, appropriately warm, and, if needed, stocked with materials to keep the animal active and engaged. Caretakers may be responsible for creating different enrichment materials so that the animal is chall...

Quick Facts


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Median Salary

$23,760

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Employment Prospects

Good

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Minimum Education Level

Associate's Degree
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Experience

Internship, volunteer, or part-time experience


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Skills

Interpersonal
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Personality Traits

Conventional
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Earnings

The median annual earnings for nonfarm animal caretakers was $23,760 in May 2018, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The top 10 percent earned more than $37,250, and the bottom 10 percent earned less than $18,160 a year. Indeed.com reported that animal caretakers employed in the United States in June 2019 earned an average of $25,355 per year.

Self-employed animal caretakers who ...

Work Environment

Animals may either be kept indoors or outdoors, in any type of weather. Eagles don't come in from the rain, so animal caretakers caring for eagles still have to traipse outside to feed them when it's raining. Horses are turned out in the middle of the winter, so horse grooms still have to carry bales of hay to the pasture in the middle of January snowdrifts. Though currying, saddling, exercisin...

Outlook

Employment in the animal care field is expected to grow much faster than the average for all careers through 2028, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Many people have pets and are concerned with their pets' care. Also, animals are home alone longer than in earlier times because most owners work full time. Dog-walking services, pet sitting and in-house care, boarding facilities, kennels,...