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What is it like working in animal control?

I was wondering what it is like to work in Animal Control. I want to know more about this job because I love animals and would love to work with them, but I want to see if it’s the right fit for me. I think I would be good at this job because I have a dog who likes to break out of my backyard. I often have to find her and safely bring her back home, which takes patience and care I was also wondering what a normal day looks like when working in animal control

career animals animal-health animal-rescue animal-control
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Patrick’s Answer

Hi Myles! It’s great that you’re looking to turn your experience with your adventurous dog into a career. Animal Control is less about "pet sitting" and more about public safety and community resource work. A typical day involves:

Field Response: Responding to calls about stray, injured, or aggressive animals and using specialized equipment like catch poles or humane traps.

Investigation: Checking for leash law violations, investigating animal cruelty reports, and verifying rabies vaccinations.

Public Education: Helping neighbors resolve conflicts (like barking or "break-outs") by teaching responsible pet ownership.

Documentation: Extensive report writing and potentially testifying in court regarding animal ordinances.
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Karen’s Answer

To work in the animal control field is very challenging emotionally. It involves a great deal of calls about animals that have been hit by cars most often they are deceased or soon will be, have extensive injuries, or weren’t seriously injured and ran away. Another aspect of the job is the animal cruelty cases. If you don’t have strong emotional support processes, this part will really affect you in a very bad way. There are a lot of euthanasia cases in animal control and this may be a part of your duties. It’s not easy taking the life of a perfectly adoptable pet just because there’s a need to make room for incoming animals. If you have the mental fortitude to effectively control your emotional response to these unpleasant but often necessary job duties then you very well may excel in this line of work. It’s grueling, often repetitive and taxing on your emotions. I recommend that you get some experience with handling the animals that you will have to deal with on the job.

Karen recommends the following next steps:

To get experience handling animals, I would recommend getting a job with a veterinary clinic or animal rescue where you can get hands-on experience with both domestic and wild animals. This is a specialized area and you will need to search for the right opportunity for you. Doing this will help you to learn how to handle each species, how to deal with aggression and whether or not the field is something you want to pursue or if it’s not quite what you’re looking for. There are a great many jobs related to pets out there. Go and make a difference. Good luck.
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