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Careers in Animal Advocacy: Jobs Helping Animals · The Animal Advocate

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I run the Animal Advocacy Academy, and this podcast is
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called The Animal Advocate. So I get asked a lot
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about careers in animal advocacy. People know they can volunteer,
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but they want to know, can you actually earn a living advocating for
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animals? Absolutely. And there are far more
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ways to do it than most people realize. I didn't plan to
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have a career in animal law. I more or less stumbled into it, and
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that experience taught me something I want to talk about today. There
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isn't just one path into this work. So let's look at some of the
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careers that are out there, what the jobs involve, and how
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people find their way into them.
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Welcome to The Animal Advocate, where we arm animal lovers
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with the information and inspiration you need to become effective
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advocates. I'm your host, Penny Ellison, and I've taught
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animal law and advocacy at the University of Pennsylvania since
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2006. If you've ever thought, someone
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should do something about that, I'm here to guide you on your
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journey to being that someone. You can find us on the
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web at animaladvocacyacademy.com.
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And that's where you'll find show notes and resources, and you can send
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us your comments on episodes and ideas for topics you'd like to hear
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on future shows. So, on to today's topic.
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My own path started when Penn Law students petitioned the dean
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to add an animal law course. The dean agreed, but told them they'd
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have to find someone to teach it. I saw their email.
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I loved animals. I was ready for something more from my work.
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I knew next to nothing about animal law. I'd never handled a single
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animal law matter. But I said yes anyway. And I've
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been teaching animal law ever since. And somewhere along the way,
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what started as a side interest became my life's work.
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I tell you that because people often assume that if they didn't start out
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intending to work in animal advocacy and getting that experience, They missed
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their chance. You haven't. Animal
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organizations need many of the same skills every other organization
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needs, and people come into this field from politics,
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law, communications, social work,
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fundraising, research, science, government, all kinds of
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other backgrounds. So let's start with grassroots
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organizing. Organizers are the people who
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turn public concern about animals into pressure for
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change. They recruit and train volunteers,
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organize calls and emails to legislators, get constituents
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into lawmakers' offices, and build coalitions around
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campaigns. The titles vary: organizer,
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campaign coordinator, grassroots manager, outreach
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coordinator, state director. National
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organizations hire organizers. So do statewide
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organizations and issue-specific campaigns. And the
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skills transfer very easily from other fields. If you've
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worked on a political campaign, organized volunteers,
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run events, raised money, or worked in sales,
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you may already know how to persuade people to take action and how to keep
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them engaged when they don't do what they promised they would do. If you
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like people, don't mind asking strangers to do things, and
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can hear no without taking it personally, organizing might be a good
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fit. Then there's law. Animal protection
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organizations employ lawyers to litigate cases, help enforce
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cruelty laws, work on legislation, and advise
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organizations on legal strategy. Groups including the Animal
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Legal Defense Fund, Humane World for Animals, the ASPCA,
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the Center for Biological Diversity, and others employ
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attorneys working on issues ranging from companion animals to
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wildlife to farm animals. There are also animal law
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positions in government, in prosecutors' offices, and in
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academia. These jobs can be highly competitive,
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particularly at the entry level, but animal law is no longer just
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a handful of people trying to create a field. There are
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genuine career paths And people can move from junior positions
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into senior legal and leadership roles.
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And you don't necessarily have to start there. Lawyers come into animal law from
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business litigation, criminal law, environmental law,
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administrative law, and other specialties. The same is true
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for people who aren't lawyers. Animal organizations also
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employ paralegals, legal assistants, and other staff who keep
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cases and programs moving. Now,
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let's go back to the shelter, but not into the kennels.
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Shelters hire communications and public relations people. They
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need social media managers, writers,
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photographers, media relations staff, and people
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who know how to tell an animal's story. Someone has to
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take a 9-year-old pit bull with a heart murmur who's been sitting in a kennel
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for 3 weeks and make a person scrolling on their phone think,
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Maybe that's my dog. That work has real
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consequences. When I've talked on this show about evaluating an
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open-admission shelter, one of the things I've suggested looking at is
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visibility. Is the shelter actively promoting its animals?
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Is it using social media well? Is it getting local media
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coverage? A shelter can do excellent work inside the building
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and still struggle if nobody outside the building Knows about
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it. Communications also gets much harder
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when things go wrong. A major cruelty seizure brings dozens
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of animals in overnight. A euthanasia decision becomes a social
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media controversy. A news reporter calls about a case
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before the shelter has had time to figure out exactly what happened.
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Someone has to communicate clearly and credibly in those
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moments. If you come from journalism, marketing,
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public relations, or social media, those skills transfer
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directly to animal advocacy.
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Then there's community outreach, which if you listen to this show regularly,
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you know is particularly important to me. Outreach staff
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work on keeping animals with the people who already love them. They
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run pet food pantries. They connect families with affordable veterinary care
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and spay/neuter services. They help people solve housing problems.
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They work in communities where access to services has historically been
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limited. This is some of the most important shelter work because it
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can prevent an animal from entering the shelter in the first place.
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Every animal who stays safely at home means one fewer
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animal needing a kennel, veterinary care, staff time,
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or a foster placement. These titles vary too. It can be community
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outreach coordinator, Pet support specialist, help
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desk person, community cat coordinator, or humane
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education coordinator. People who come from social
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services, public health, education, community
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organizing, or customer service might have the
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exact skills that those kind of programs need. And a
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large part of that work is listening. You have to be
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able to find out why someone is struggling to care for an animal without assuming
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that the answer is that they just don't care enough or they haven't tried.
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Animal cruelty enforcement is another career path. Depending on the
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state, these jobs might be called humane officer, humane
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agent, cruelty investigator, or in Pennsylvania, humane
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society police officer. In some places, the work is done
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through humane organizations, meaning that these people, these sworn
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officers, work for shelters In others, it's part of
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municipal animal control or regular law enforcement, so you would work for the
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government. The job combines animals,
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investigations, and the criminal justice system.
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You may investigate complaints, interview witnesses, collect
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evidence, remove animals when the law allows it, and
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testify in court. It can be physically and
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emotionally difficult work. And you need to be comfortable dealing with
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people who might be angry, defensive, or
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uncooperative, or all 3. People with
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backgrounds in law enforcement, investigations, or the
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military might find that many of their skills transfer.
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Those are only a few of the possibilities. Veterinary medicine
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is an obvious path, and shelter medicine has become a specialty in its own right.
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Shelters employ veterinarians, veterinary technicians, and veterinary
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assistants. Behavior specialists and trainers work with animals
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who are struggling in kennels or foster homes. Foster
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coordinators and volunteer coordinators manage the networks of
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people many shelters depend on to function. And
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fundraising is its own career field. Development
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directors, grant writers, major gifts officers,
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donor relations staff, and event planners raise the money
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that pays for everything else we've talked about. If you know how
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to build relationships with donors or write a compelling grant proposal,
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you can build a career doing that for animals.
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Government offers another set of options. In Pennsylvania, we have state
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dog wardens that inspect kennels and enforce the dog law, making
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sure that breeders and boarding kennels are following
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the rules. There's also USDA inspectors at the federal
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level. Wildlife agencies employ biologists,
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conservation officers, and policy staff. And
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legislators have staff who research bills, draft
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legislation, negotiate amendments, work with people like me,
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and advise elected officials about the issues in front of them.
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I think legislative staff are some of the most overlooked people in animal advocacy.
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If you care about changing laws, working inside the
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legislature can give you an extraordinary education about how
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laws really get made. There are also investigators
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working for advocacy organizations, including people who go
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undercover and document conditions inside farms and slaughterhouses.
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There are journalists specializing in animal issues.
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There are researchers studying shelter populations and animal
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welfare, public attitudes, and which advocacy
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strategies actually work. There are humane
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educators. There are sanctuary workers and
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wildlife rehabilitators. There are people working in food policy
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and alternative proteins. There are researchers using data to
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decide where limited resources can do the most good.
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And there are people like me who teach. The list keeps
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growing because animal advocacy has grown. What used to be thought
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of mostly as volunteer work has become a collection of professions.
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That doesn't mean every job pays well. I gotta tell you, some don't.
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Nonprofit salaries are usually lower than salaries for comparable
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work in the private sector, particularly early in a career.
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But these are careers. There are entry-level jobs, management jobs,
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and senior leadership positions. You can build expertise and
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move up. And you don't just get paid money in these jobs,
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you get satisfaction of making a difference for animals.
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And that brings me back to where I started. If you want to work for
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animals, don't begin by asking, what animal-related
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job could I do? Ask, what am I good at?
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Are you a writer, an organizer, a teacher, a
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fundraiser? A scientist? A lawyer? A
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social worker? A researcher? Someone who can run a
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complicated program and make sure 10 different things happen when they're supposed
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to? Then ask, who in
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animal advocacy needs those skills? Because the job
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title is not going to say animal advocate.
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This week's Be the Change is simple. Pick one animal organization whose
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work you respect and go to its careers page. You don't have to
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apply for anything, and there might not be anything available that matches your skills,
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but just look. See what jobs are called, look at the
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qualifications, notice the skills they're asking for.
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Part of finding your way into a field is just learning what opportunities
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exist. When I agreed to teach animal law, I
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didn't have an animal law resume. I had a legal career and an
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interest in animals. The rest came later. You
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may be much closer to a career helping animals than you think.
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That's it for today. The Animal Advocate podcast is brought to you
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by the Animal Advocacy Academy. You can find
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episodes and show notes at animaladvocacyacademy.com.
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Academy.com, along with a link to our Facebook and
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LinkedIn pages where we discuss our podcasts, and we'd love to
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discuss your thoughts and experiences there. If you're
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interested in learning more about protecting animals, subscribe to the show
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so you get every episode when it comes out. If you have any
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questions on this or any other topic related to animal law,
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email them to podcast@animaladvocacyacademy.com.
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And we'll make sure to get them answered. We'll either email you
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back or feature them in a future episode, or both.
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And remember, compassion is great, but
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compassionate action is infinitely better. Until
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next week, live with compassion.