Occupation
Animal care attendant
Animal care attendants feed, clean, exercise, and monitor animals in kennels, catteries, shelters, boarding facilities, and research or holding units. The work is physical and routine-driven, with cleaning and feeding rounds that run every day including weekends. Shelter settings add difficult situations involving neglected animals and distressed members of the public.
Also known as: Kennel attendant · Animal shelter worker · Pet care attendant · Animal caretaker · Animal shelter attendant
Occupation content
Part of Agriculture, animals and environment
What the work involves
- Clean, disinfect, and restock kennels, runs, and enclosures on the daily round.
- Prepare and give feeds and water according to each animal's care plan.
- Exercise, socialise, groom, and enrich animals in care.
- Observe appetite, behaviour, and physical condition and report concerns to a supervisor or veterinarian.
- Handle intake, identification, and record-keeping for arriving and departing animals.
- Talk with owners, adopters, and visitors about care, behaviour, and facility rules.
How people commonly enter
- Direct entry with on-the-job training and employer-provided animal handling instruction.
- A short course or certificate in animal care, animal welfare, or kennel operations.
- Volunteering at a shelter or rescue that leads into paid work.
- A college certificate or diploma in animal care for people aiming at supervisory or technician roles.
Typical training: Short course or on-the-job training
Licensing: Not typically licensed
Typical work context
Physically active · Team based · Shift work · Public facing · Varied work
Related interests
Realistic (hands-on) · Social (helping)
Related aptitude preparation
These are preparation links only. They do not measure eligibility for this occupation and no score here qualifies or disqualifies anyone.
Skills to practise
Related learning
Family-level learning links for Agriculture, animals and environment.
Official sources
Labour-market facts such as pay and employment projections are not reproduced here. Open an official source below for figures, with its own geography and reference period.
- US BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook — Animal Care and Service Workers · United States
Link checked
- Canada Job Bank — Career planning and occupation search (Animal care attendant) · Canada
Link checked
Labour-market context (not part of exploration match)
This is broad family-level context for Agriculture, animals and environment in Canada, not a figure for Animal care attendant. It does not affect matching scores and is not an eligibility determination.
This is a broad Agriculture, animals and environment family. Explore the official profile for the chosen occupation; entry education and training can differ within the family.
Canada Job Bank Career Planning · Canada · Current official profile; consult source for its release period
Agriculture, animals and environment: education pathways
Some roles in Agriculture, animals and environment may be regulated. Confirm whether the specific role requires registration, certification, or a jurisdiction-specific licence.
Canada Job Bank Career Planning · Canada · Current official profile; consult source for its release period
Agriculture, animals and environment: licensing
Find jobs
These are live, user-controlled searches on each source's own site for “ Animal care attendant”. Novus Learn does not fetch, store, or rank these results, and job availability never changes your exploration match score.
- Search Canada Job Bank · Canada
- Search USAJOBS · United States federal
- Search EURES · European Union / EEA
- Search Indeed · International (choose location on Indeed)