How To Become An Animal Cruelty Investigator: What It Is and Career Path

What is an animal cruelty investigator 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 cruelty investigator. For example, did you know that they make an average of $25.83 an hour? That's $53,723 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 3% and produce 20,600 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreAnimal Cruelty InvestigatorUS Average

Salary

4.2

Avg. Salary $53,723

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

9.8

Growth rate 3%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.9

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 2.36%

Asian 1.02%

Black or African American 8.99%

Hispanic or Latino 7.00%

Unknown 4.82%

White 75.81%

Gender

female 40.00%

male 60.00%

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 cruelty investigator

Explore animal cruelty investigator education requirements

Most common animal cruelty investigator degrees

Associate

35.9 %

Bachelor's

33.3 %

High School Diploma

15.4 %

Start to develop specific animal cruelty investigator skills

Skills	Percentages
Law Enforcement	40.47%
Patrol	33.36%
State Laws	7.25%
Control Association	4.92%
Crime Scenes	4.73%

Complete relevant animal cruelty investigator training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New animal cruelty investigators 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 cruelty investigator based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real animal cruelty investigator resumes.

Research animal cruelty investigator duties and responsibilities

Reserve police officer responsibilities motorize patrol, preliminary investigations, traffic control, general crowd control at events.
Send out monthly SIU newspaper.

Prepare your animal cruelty investigator resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your animal cruelty investigator 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 cruelty investigator 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 cruelty investigator resume templates

Build a professional animal cruelty investigator 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 cruelty investigator resume.