Animal Care Job Description
Animal Care Duties & Responsibilities
To write an effective animal care job description, begin by listing detailed duties, responsibilities and expectations. We have included animal care job description templates that you can modify and use.
Sample responsibilities for this position include:
Animal Care Qualifications
Qualifications for a job description may include education, certification, and experience.
Licensing or Certifications for Animal Care
List any licenses or certifications required by the position: AALAS, ALAT, LATG, EBI, SCUBA, LAT, OSHA, CMAR, C.P.R, ALAAS
Education for Animal Care
Typically a job would require a certain level of education.
Employers hiring for the animal care job most commonly would prefer for their future employee to have a relevant degree such as High School and Collage Degree in Education, General Education, Animal Care, Science, Medical, Faculty, Patient Care, Medicine, Sciences, Graduate School
Skills for Animal Care
Desired skills for animal care include:
Desired experience for animal care includes:
Animal Care Examples
Animal Care Job Description
- Process unclean caging and equipment in preparation for sanitization
- Operate and maintain automated cage wash equipment and sterilizers
- Stock assigned areas with animal care supplies such as, but not limited to, pet food, cat litter, bedding
- Sweep and mop all floors with disinfectant throughout the entire assigned area removing blood, feces, hair, urine, vomit
- Provide basic animal husbandry for all species housed in the facility
- This individual will assure that work is performed in accordance with production schedules
- Assembly of rodent caging
- Help in the transfer of new products, processes and protocols from R&D to Manufacturing
- Supervises the daily operations for animal facilities within the Animal Resource Center
- Oversees the Assistant Supervisor Animal Care and/or Team Lead Animal Care
- AALAS ALAT Certification, or willingness to become certified
- Must be an effective and flexible communicator to a very diverse community
- Must effectively prioritize tasks, use good judgment, resolve issues effectively & efficiently, and work independently
- Demonstrated desire and ability to learn
- Night, weekend, holiday, inclement weather availability required
- Bending, stooping, and lifting (Must be able to lift 60 lbs.)
Animal Care Job Description
- Conducts facility inspections and assist in managing the quality assurance program in the animal facilities
- Generates monthly progress reports for each facility
- Responsible for training and ensuring safety programs are followed
- Conducts and reviews animal care staff evaluations
- Ensure each employee receives appropriate training for duties, and ongoing training of experienced staff
- Coaches and mentors to develop the staff
- Interacts with internal and external clients and provides a high level of customer service
- Leadership and/or participation in cross-functional teams
- Maintain up to date knowledge of applicable ISO, GLP, GMP, and FDA guidance documents and their interpretation
- Support client, regulatory, and accreditation audits and inspections
- Providing behavioral counseling services to adopters at the time of adoptions, at any
- Bachelor’s Degree is required in the biological sciences or related field or an equivalent combination of education and experience
- AALAS certification at the ALAT level preferred
- Bachelor’s degree (STEM field)
- Must enroll in an occupational health program
- Able to communicate and work well in a diverse environment
Animal Care Job Description
- Operate commonly used equipment including machines used for washing and sterilizing items
- Maintain validation records of equipment and room maintenance records of assigned areas
- Assist in the inventory of animal feed, bedding, other caging equipment, and supplies and in ordering these supplies
- Provide technical support, animal handling and restraint, ear tagging, and assisting with basic research procedures as directed dosing of animals, collection of animal tissue and blood
- Investigate and respond to non-conformances and findings in a satisfactory and timely manner
- Strictly follows all procedures necessary to maintain animal housing, including room or facility personnel entry
- Performs cage changes to include water, bedding, and food sanitation and cleaning in compliance with all regulations
- Staff Management – Animal Care Support Staff
- Facility Maintenance and Safety Management
- Communication with management team, staff and clients
- Ability to occasionally lift up to 50 lbs., bend, stoop, and/or stand for a long period of time
- Must be able to wear PPE, including (potentially) a respirator
- Experience in a laboratory animal facility performing husbandry duties and/or animal handling
- Possess a strong work ethic, attention to detail, and the ability to work collaboratively and function as part of a team, sometimes with minimal supervision, while staying on schedule
- Have knowledge of the basic principles of biosecurity in animal facilities, including wearing PPE, using disinfectants, and maintaining appropriate traffic flow of materials
- Demonstrate ability to precisely read, write, and follow instructions written in English
Animal Care Job Description
- Prepare acidified water bottles using an automated bottle filler and proportioner
- Receive, transport, process, store and label animal feed and bedding
- Disassemble, wash, and reassemble ventilated Thoren units
- Recognizes and reports conditions of animal health and welfare that are at variance from normal for the species
- Responsible for documenting information related to job duties and weekly animal census
- Walking, feeding, and medicating boarders (both cats and dogs)
- Doing services (baths, nail trims, anal glands)
- Clean and sanitize kennel
- Maintain overall cleanliness of clinic
- Daily observations of animals for illness, injury, or unusual behavior and to notify supervisor or veterinarian if needed
- AALAS certified Laboratory Animal Technologist or a certified Laboratory Animal Technician (LAT) currently in training to become certified at the LATG level
- High school diploma or GED with 1-3 years’ experience
- Be proficient using standard computer software
- Certification by the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science as an Assistant Laboratory Animal Technician (ALAT) or higher
- Assist in transportation of animals to and from labs
- Assist with washing dishes for the physiology laboratory
Animal Care Job Description
- Regularly inspects the animal facilities and equipment to ensure proper maintenance
- Orders animals and equipment as required within signing authority level
- Other building cleaning and maintenance may be assigned as well
- Adhere to Charles River and Pfizer departmental safety policies and departmental SOPs and guidelines while demonstrating competency in facility safety protocols
- Be trained to correctly perform daily and weekly farm chores taking care of cows, pigs, sheep, chickens, goats
- Learn how to maintain a safe, secure, healthy and humane environment for all animals
- Help maintain pristine living quarters for all animals by cleaning stalls, maintaining barns, weed-whacking and helping with the overall upkeep of the farm
- Assist with animal care record keeping
- Teaching topics may include farm discovery, candle dipping and general nature or farm exploration
- Assist with special events such as the Apple Fest and other special events as assigned
- Assist in WCM basement space management as necessary
- A High School diploma, preferably a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology
- A minimum of 2 years experience in a related field, preferably manufacturing environment
- Animal handling experience and techniques is a plus
- Must be able to lift up to fifty lbs and stand for long periods of time
- Ability to lift and carry items of 50lbs on a daily basis