How To Become An Animal Control Specialist: What It Is and Career Path

What is an animal control specialist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an animal control specialist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $15.93 an hour? That's $33,131 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 28% and produce 101,200 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreAnimal Control SpecialistUS Average

Salary

2.6

Avg. Salary $33,131

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

9.8

Growth rate 28%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.9

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 2.37%

Asian 1.11%

Black or African American 7.82%

Hispanic or Latino 7.53%

Unknown 4.83%

White 76.35%

Gender

female 61.57%

male 38.43%

Age - 37

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 37

Stress level

9.8

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

4.7

Complexity level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work life balance

7.4

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an animal control specialist

Explore animal control specialist education requirements

Most common animal control specialist degrees

Bachelor's

55.4 %

Associate

20.7 %

High School Diploma

17.4 %

Start to develop specific animal control specialist skills

Skills	Percentages
Animal Handling	35.02%
Customer Service	29.88%
Wild Animals	23.23%
Administrative Tasks	4.72%
Motion Graphics	4.09%

Complete relevant animal control specialist training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New animal control specialists learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as an animal control specialist based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real animal control specialist resumes.

Research animal control specialist duties and responsibilities

Furnish key initiative in all parts of government and commercial contract/compliance and manage transportation, logistics and substance contracting exercises.
Collaborate extensively with U.S. military logistics units to ensure up-to-date processes, procedures, and authorizations for distribution of government property.
Perform veterinary technical work in the care of animals, adoption counseling and pet care education.

Prepare your animal control specialist resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your animal control specialist resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on an animal control specialist resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable animal control specialist resume templates

Build a professional animal control specialist resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your animal control specialist resume.