Animal Care Specialist

Animal Care Centers of NYC; New York (NY); On-site; USD 22,000 - 30,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Paid time off (PTO)

Medical, dental, and vision insurance

401K and Pension

Life Insurance

On-the-job training

Staff trainings

Job summary

The Animal Care Specialist at Animal Care Centers of NY provides a high standard of animal care to ensure the welfare of animals at the ACC Care Centers. Primary duties include keeping a clean, healthy living environment and offering information about each animal's health, behavior, and needs.

The role involves closely interacting with animals, supporting medical, behavior, adoptions and New Hope departments, and ensuring a safe, compassionate environment.

Qualifications

• High School Diploma or GED is required.
• Six months of animal care or custodial experience, or related education, is required.
• Must lift up to 50 pounds and stand for 8 hours or more.

Responsibilities

• Maintain high standard of animal care and welfare with scheduled feedings, water, bedding and enrichment.
• Document unusual behavior, illness, injury, and communicate to medical/behavior/adoptions teams.
• Restrain, confine, and handle animals, including ill, injured, quarantined, and aggressive animals.
• Provide excellent customer service to individuals utilizing ACC services.

Skills

Physical stamina

Safety consciousness

Customer service

Bilingual (preferred)

Education

High School Diploma or GED

Job description

ACC is one of the nation’s largest open-admission animal shelters, whose mission is to End Animal Homelessness in NYC. We touch the lives of nearly 20,000 animals each year. ACC is more than an animal shelter; we are a resource to the community, always seeking ways to keep the human-animal bond intact. With a 90% placement rate, our progressive, life‑saving initiatives contribute to the successful placement of our animals.

We strive to find loving homes for homeless and abandoned cats, dogs, guinea pigs and rabbits, both by adopting animals directly to the public and by partnering with more than 200 dedicated animal placement organizations (our New Hope partners). We also help keep NYC communities safe and rescue animals in need, responding to emergencies that involve animals as well as keeping our doors open 24/7 for people and animals in need.

Summary

The Animal Care Specialist provides a high standard of animal care to ensure the welfare of animals at the ACC Care Centers. With a primary responsibility to provide and maintain a clean, healthy living environment for each animal, the Animal Care Specialist has extensive, close interactions with those animals, empowering them as a source of vital information on the health, behavior, and needs of each animal. By taking note of and responding to this information, as well as through communication with others, the Animal Care Specialist ensures that ACC’s animals are provided with an environment and experience that supports both their physical and mental/emotional health.

Required Qualifications:

• High School Diploma or GED required.
• Six months of previous animal care or custodial experience, or equivalent education in a related field, is required.
• Treats animals and people with respect.
• Must be able to lift up to 50 pounds and work standing for 8 hours or more.

ACC values work/life balance and offers a generous paid‑time‑off (PTO) package that includes vacation time, birthdays off, personal days and sick pay. We also value physical and mental health by offering a great open access Cigna medical, dental and vision insurance at a low premium to our employees as well as 401K and Pension, Life Insurance. We also have on‑the‑job training for 2‑4 weeks, periodic all staff trainings to include safety, DEI, cross training, and other growth opportunities.

Because ACC is a nonprofit, employees may be eligible for loan forgiveness, cancellation, and/or consolidation under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program (PSLF). Created under the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007, PSLF allows borrowers who work full time for nonprofits and government agencies to have their outstanding debt forgiven tax‑free on Federal Direct Loans, after making 120 qualifying monthly payments under a qualifying repayment plan.

• Maintain a high standard of animal care and welfare, which includes providing scheduled feedings, clean water at all times, proper bedding and enrichment toys.
• Properly clean and sanitize kennels, wards, cages, equipment and areas of shelter as assigned, according to ACC policy and procedure.
• Exercise and socialize with animals on a regular basis while abiding to ACC’s dog walking guidelines.

Other Responsibilities:

• Observe and document unusual behavior, signs of illness and any injury of an animal on a daily basis.
• Communicate vital information to medical, behavior, adoptions and New Hope departments as needed.
• Restrain, confine, handle animals, including those which are ill, injured, quarantined, and aggressive.
• Be knowledgeable and conversational on ACC policies and common animal welfare practices.
• Work cooperatively with ACC volunteers and partners.
• Process animal intakes as needed.
• Provide excellent customer service to individuals utilizing ACC services, ranging from warm greetings and hellos, to providing more in-depth information about specific animals.
• Fear Free Shelter certification is required within 30 days of hire.
• Perform other duties as assigned by supervisor.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Previous professional or volunteer animal handling experience a plus.
• Ability to excel in a fast‑paced, often high stress environment.
• Has attention to detail and a strong work ethic to complete tasks correctly.
• Is a confident communicator, a people person and a team player, willing to pitch in to help others and ensure the needs of the animals are met.
• Available to modify schedule as needed to meet the needs of the organization, this is a union position and may include overtime based on seniority.
• Possesses a love of animals and is able to interact with them in a calm, non‑threatening manner.
• Bilingual preferred but not required.

At ACC it's all hands‑on deck. We work together as a team, which means you may be asked to help with tasks that involve working outside in all sorts of weather. As a busy animal shelter in one of the biggest cities in the world it can get noisy inside. Employees should have the ability to remain calm yet professional in stressful situations involving animals and/or members of the public. ACC houses hundreds of animals in its facilities at any given time and with that comes fur, odors and other airborne particles in abundance.

ACC offers many low‑cost services to pets and people in need. This includes compassionate end‑of‑life services for people who cannot afford to go to a private veterinary office but still want to provide a professional and peaceful transition for their beloved pet.

Reports To:

Animal Care Supervisor

Overtime:

This is a union position and is eligible for overtime.