How to hire an animal care specialist

How to hire an animal care specialist, step by step

Here's a step-by-step animal care specialist hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write an animal care specialist job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new animal care specialist
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does an animal care specialist do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   Before you start hiring an animal care specialist, identify what type of worker you actually need. Certain positions might call for a full-time employee, while others can be done by a part-time worker or contractor.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   An animal care specialist's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, animal care specialists from different industries or fields will have radically different experiences and will bring different viewpoints to the role. You also need to consider the candidate's previous level of experience to make sure they'll be comfortable with the job's level of seniority.

   Here's a comparison of animal care specialist salaries for various roles:

   Type of Animal Care Specialist	Description	Hourly rate
   Animal Care Specialist	Veterinarians care for the health of animals and work to improve public health. They diagnose, treat, and research medical conditions and diseases of pets, livestock, and other animals.	$10-74
   Doctor Of Veterinary Medicine	A Veterinary Medicine Doctor is responsible for studying animal nature, diagnosing animal illnesses, and developing treatment plans and medications. They analyze an extensive scope of animal conditions to identify care programs that would keep them healthy... Show more	$31-133
   Emergency Veterinarian	An emergency veterinarian is responsible for providing quality care services for animals at veterinary clinics and hospitals. Emergency veterinarians diagnose the animal's condition and administer treatment plans and medications... Show more	$22-90

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • PET
   • Animal Handling
   • Quality Customer Service
   • Animal Husbandry
   • Animal Shelter
   • Physical Examinations
   • Surgical Procedures
   • Development Facilities
   • Front Desk
   • Medical Procedures
   • Blood Draws
   • Administer Medications
   • IV
   • Animal Enclosures

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Enter demographics and medical history into EMR.
   • Perform hearing, vision, vital signs, and EKG tests as part of physical examinations of air crews.
   • Motivate and instruct children ages PreK-2nd grade in different sports programs offer such as soccer, basketball, and t-ball.
   • Develop adaptive sports programs for a variety of disabilities.
   • Check in patients, maintain accurate personal information using computer system and software.
   • Assist in performance of humane euthanasia.

   More animal care specialist duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your animal care specialist job description helps attract top candidates to the position. An animal care specialist salary can be affected by several factors, such as geography, experience, seniority, certifications, and the prestige of the hiring company.

   For example, the average salary for an animal care specialist in Wyoming may be lower than in Maryland, and an entry-level animal care specialist usually earns less than a senior-level animal care specialist. Additionally, an animal care specialist with certifications may command a higher salary, and working for a well-known company or start-up may also impact an employee's pay.

   Average animal care specialist salary

   $59,197yearly

   $28.46 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level animal care specialist salary

   $22,000 yearly salary

   Updated January 23, 2026

   Average animal care specialist salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	Maryland	$109,028	$52
   2	New York	$92,662	$45
   3	Pennsylvania	$88,858	$43
   4	Massachusetts	$88,314	$42
   5	Virginia	$83,836	$40
   6	Minnesota	$77,765	$37
   7	Illinois	$76,282	$37
   8	North Carolina	$72,262	$35
   9	Wisconsin	$68,516	$33
   10	California	$67,900	$33
   11	Arizona	$61,550	$30
   12	Missouri	$60,853	$29
   13	Texas	$60,224	$29
   14	Alabama	$58,816	$28
   15	Oregon	$57,878	$28
   16	Florida	$53,340	$26
   17	Colorado	$52,194	$25

   Average animal care specialist salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	SPCA of Wake County	$336,831	$161.94	3
   2	Providence Health & Services	$296,550	$142.57	93
   3	Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital	$289,409	$139.14	4
   4	Asante	$288,395	$138.65	10
   5	UnityPoint Health	$275,061	$132.24	109
   6	Medical City Arlington	$251,350	$120.84	6
   7	Novant Health	$240,249	$115.50	13
   8	Brigham and Women's Hospital	$214,151	$102.96	17
   9	TidalHealth	$212,547	$102.19	8
   10	UTMB HEALTHCARE SYSTEMS	$189,993	$91.34	37
   11	UNC Health Care	$189,341	$91.03
   12	Mayo Clinic	$158,351	$76.13	65
   13	Covance	$144,628	$69.53
   14	Ochsner Health	$138,535	$66.60	66
   15	Greif	$125,409	$60.29
   16	Neuralink IT Solutions	$125,068	$60.13	1
   17	Baylor College of Medicine	$117,874	$56.67	1
   18	Charles River Labs	$100,375	$48.26	122
   19	Pfizer	$98,854	$47.53
   20	Lincoln Holdings LLC	$97,547	$46.90

4. Writing an animal care specialist job description

   A good animal care specialist job description should include a few things:

   • Summary of the role
   • List of responsibilities
   • Required skills and experience

   Including a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager is also appreciated by candidates. Here's an example of an animal care specialist job description:

   Animal care specialist job description example

   High school diploma or GED required as well as 2 year of experience working with individuals with mental illness or in the human services field. • Individual must be 18 years of age or older. • Must have a valid Kansas driver’s license and reliable transportation with auto insurance. • Be able to pass criminal background check and DCF Child & Adult Abuse Registry check. • Requires knowledge of basic computer skills. • Must be able to complete required KsTrain online trainings and program trainings. • Must be able to perform day-to-day physical requirements of the position, including but not limited to- 20% of scheduled time; data entry, answering the phone and computer work, 80% of scheduled time; ability to lift up to 25 pounds, frequently moving around the building and community, repetitive moving, carrying and lifting as the job demand. • Ability to work day, evening, night, weekend & holidays shifts based on the needs of the program.

   Salary Range

   $16.63 – $17.98**Valeo offers Shift Differential ~~ 2nd shift – 75 cents/hr., 3rd shift – $1.50/hr., weekend – $2.00/hr.**

   Hours

   Full time and Part time positions are benefit eligible

   Full Time Hours

   Fulltime 1st shift Sun-Thurs – 2 positions

   Fulltime 1st shift Tues-Sat – 1 position

   Fulltime 2nd shift Sun-Thurs – 2 positions

   Fulltime 2nd shift Tues-Sat – 1 position

   Fulltime 3rd shift Sun-Thurs- 1 position

   Fulltime 3rd shift Tues-Sat- 1 position

   Part Time Hours

   Part Time 1st shift Fri, Sat, Sun, M – 2 positions

   Part Time 2nd shift Fri, Sat, Sun, M – 2 positions

   Part Time 3rd shift Fr, Sat, Sun, M – 2 positions

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find the right animal care specialist for your business, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important sources of talent for any company is its existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and current employees and ask if they know or have worked with animal care specialists they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit animal care specialists who meet your education requirements.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter now have more than 3.5 billion users, and you can use social media to reach potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your animal care specialist job on Zippia to find and attract quality animal care specialist candidates.
   • Use niche websites such as healthcarejobsite, health jobs nationwide, hospitalcareers, medreps.com.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   To successfully recruit animal care specialists, your first interview needs to engage with candidates to learn about their interest in the role and experience in the field. You can go into more detail about the company, the role, and the responsibilities during follow-up interviews.

   You should also ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match the ideal candidate profile you developed earlier. Candidates good enough for the next step can complete the technical interview.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new animal care specialist

   Once you have selected a candidate for the animal care specialist position, it is time to create an offer letter. In addition to salary, the offer letter should include details about benefits and perks that are available to the employee. Ensuring your offer is competitive is vital, as qualified candidates may be considering other job opportunities. The candidate may wish to negotiate the terms of the offer, and it is important to be open to discussion and reach a mutually beneficial agreement. After the offer has been accepted, it is a good idea to formalize the agreement with a contract.

   It's equally important to follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that the position has been filled.

   To prepare for the new employee's start date, you can create an onboarding schedule and complete any necessary paperwork, such as employee action forms and onboarding documents like I-9 forms, benefits enrollment, and federal and state tax forms. Human Resources should also ensure that a new employee file is created.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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How much does it cost to hire an animal care specialist?