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What does an animal control officer do?

Updated January 8, 2025
5 min read

An animal control officer is an individual who enforces humane care regulations and animal licensing laws to maintain public safety. You are expected to perform a variety of tasks that include investigating animal cruelty cases, rescuing trapped animals, and capturing stray or dangerous animals. In addition, you will handle animals, including pets and wildlife, and investigate animal abuse and mistreatment. As an animal control officer, it is also your duty to provide animal care, such as feeding the animals and giving them attention.

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Animal control officer responsibilities

Here are examples of responsibilities from real animal control officer resumes:

  • Write citations pick up neglect and stray animals euthanize sick animals
  • Train and maintain a certify explosives detector K9.
  • Examine dog licenses for validity and issue warnings or summonses to delinquent owners.
  • Perform investigations, including gathering evidence, testifying in court, issuing and reviewing summonses and formal reports.
  • Field patrol including the collection and euthanasia of sick/unclaim animals.
  • Educate citizens in a professional and non-confrontational manner on responsible pet ownership.
  • Administer immediate first aid, transport to veterinary or humanely euthanize injure animals.
  • Provide animal education and teaching in humane treatment of animals and responsible pet ownership to citizens.
  • Reserve police officer responsibilities motorize patrol, preliminary investigations, traffic control, general crowd control at events.
  • Own (ed) dogs, cats, hamster, turtle, fish and snakes.
  • Experience in handling of snakes (both venomous and non-venomous).

Animal control officer skills and personality traits

We calculated that 13% of Animal Control Officers are proficient in PET, Patrol, and Law Enforcement Agencies.

We break down the percentage of Animal Control Officers that have these skills listed on their resume here:

  • PET, 13%

    Provided animal education and teaching in humane treatment of animals and responsible pet ownership to citizens.

  • Patrol, 8%

    Reserve police officer responsibilities motorized patrol, preliminary investigations, traffic control, general crowd control at events.

  • Law Enforcement Agencies, 8%

    Investigated animal abuse/neglect cases -Rescued various injured wildlife -Assisted Law Enforcement agencies when animal involved -Public Relations

  • County Ordinances, 7%

    Patrolled a variety of suburban and rural areas throughout Orange County enforcing county ordinances pertaining to animals.

  • Wild Animals, 5%

    Handled aggressive and non-aggressive domestic and wild animals.

  • Euthanize, 5%

    Administer immediate first aid, transport to veterinary or humanely euthanize injured animals.

Most animal control officers use their skills in "pet," "patrol," and "law enforcement agencies" to do their jobs. You can find more detail on essential animal control officer responsibilities here:

See the full list of animal control officer skills

The three companies that hire the most animal control officers are:

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Compare different animal control officers

Animal control officer vs. Dog warden

We looked at the average animal control officer salary and compared it with the wages of a dog warden. Generally speaking, dog wardens are paid $2,814 lower than animal control officers per year.While the two careers have a salary gap, they share some of the same responsibilities. Employees in both animal control officer and dog warden positions are skilled in law enforcement agencies, county ordinances, and stray animals.

There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, animal control officer responsibilities require skills like "pet," "patrol," "wild animals," and "euthanize." Meanwhile a typical dog warden has skills in areas such as "euthanasia," "dog licenses," "preform," and "facebook." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.

On average, dog wardens reach similar levels of education than animal control officers. Dog wardens are 0.6% more likely to earn a Master's Degree and 0.3% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

Animal control officer vs. Canine service instructor-trainer

On average, canine service instructor-trainers earn a $4,481 lower salary than animal control officers a year.

While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that animal control officer responsibilities requires skills like "pet," "county ordinances," "wild animals," and "euthanize." But a canine service instructor-trainer might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "logistics," "in-service training," "technical training," and "training classes."

Average education levels between the two professions vary. Canine service instructor-trainers tend to reach similar levels of education than animal control officers. In fact, they're 4.5% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.3% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Animal control officer vs. Humane agent

An average humane agent eans a lower salary compared to the average salary of animal control officers. The difference in salaries amounts to humane agents earning a $6,752 lower average salary than animal control officers.By looking over several animal control officers and humane agents resumes, we found that both roles require similar skills in their day-to-day duties, such as "animal handling," "court proceedings," and "search warrants." But beyond that, the careers look very different.

Some important key differences between the two careers include a few of the skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of each. Some examples from animal control officer resumes include skills like "pet," "patrol," "law enforcement agencies," and "county ordinances," whereas a humane agent is more likely to list skills in "hris," "r," "payroll," and "customer service. "

Most humane agents achieve a higher degree level compared to animal control officers. For example, they're 9.8% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.3% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Animal control officer vs. Animal cruelty investigator

Animal cruelty investigators tend to earn a higher pay than animal control officers by an average of $13,820 per year.While their salaries may vary, animal control officers and animal cruelty investigators both use similar skills to perform their duties. Resumes from both professions include skills like "patrol," "wild animals," and "animal handling. "

Even though a few skill sets overlap between animal control officers and animal cruelty investigators, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, an animal control officer might have more use for skills like "pet," "law enforcement agencies," "county ordinances," and "euthanize." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of animal cruelty investigators require skills like "law enforcement," "animal health," "control association," and "crime scenes. "

Animal cruelty investigators reach similar levels of education compared to animal control officers, in general. The difference is that they're 3.1% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 4.9% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

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