An animal care attendant feeds, waters, exercises and cleans up after animals, watching each for signs of illness or injury.
BLS describes shelter attendants as working with cats and dogs in animal shelters and rescue leagues, and O*NET places the occupation in kennels, animal shelters, zoos and aquariums.
It is entry-level work: BLS says animal care and service workers — the group that includes attendants — typically have a high school diploma or equivalent and learn on the job.
This guide covers the work, settings, pay and how to get hired.
What is an animal care attendant?
Animal care attendant is a job title inside the BLS and O*NET occupation animal caretakers (includes groomers), SOC 39-2021.
O*NET defines animal caretakers as workers who feed, water, groom, bathe, exercise or otherwise care for pets and other animals that are not raised for consumption, to promote and maintain their well-being.
The settings O*NET names include kennels, animal shelters, zoos and aquariums, and the work can include keeping records and cleaning and disinfecting cages.
Inside an animal shelter or rescue league, BLS describes attendants as taking care of the animals' basic needs plus administrative duties: keeping records, answering questions from the public, educating visitors about pet health and screening people who want to adopt an animal.
Shelter animal care attendant is the same job named for its setting.
Animal care giver is another front-line title in O*NET's reported-title sample; a posting that names the work animal care technician but describes daily feeding, cleaning and exercise rounds is describing this job.
O*NET's sample of reported job titles for the occupation includes Animal Care Giver, Kennel Attendant, Kennel Technician, Dog Bather, Dog Groomer, Pet Groomer, Pet Stylist and Zookeeper.
Groomer titles sit in the same occupation, but the work is different.
Groomers' work centers on the coat — cutting, bathing and styling — while attendants run the daily care BLS describes: feeding, cleaning, exercise and watching over animals' basic needs.
Know the boundary with veterinary work.
BLS covers animal care in veterinary clinics, animal hospitals and research labs under a separate profile, Veterinary Assistants and Laboratory Animal Caretakers (SOC 31-9096).
A posting that centers on treatment rooms, lab work and medical support describes that job, not this one.
What does an animal care attendant do day to day?
BLS lists the typical duties of animal care and service workers as giving food and water, cleaning equipment and living spaces, monitoring and recording animals' diet, condition and behavior, examining animals for illness or injury, exercising them, and bathing, nail trimming and clipping.
Training appears on the same list.
O*NET's survey rates feeding and watering animals according to schedules as the occupation's highest-rated core task, followed by providing treatment for or contacting a veterinarian about sick or injured animals, and observing animals for illness, disease or injury.
That ordering is the day in miniature: rounds run on schedule, eyes stay up, and anything off gets reported.
Cleaning is core work in this occupation, not a side task.
O*NET lists facility laundry and cleaning, organizing, maintaining and disinfecting animal quarters as a core task.
The Association of Shelter Veterinarians' 2022 Guidelines treat grooming and bathing as essential components of animal care in shelters.
The Guidelines say grooming and bathing must be provided when necessary for an animal's health or comfort — so in a shelter, the bathing on BLS's duty list doubles as care work, not a styling service.
The administrative side is real work in shelters too.
Attendants keep records, answer public questions, educate visitors about pet health and screen would-be adopters, per BLS.
Experienced attendants take on more: BLS says they may help a veterinarian vaccinate or euthanize animals.
Spot and refer
Where do animal care attendants work?
Animal shelters and rescue leagues are the employers this title points to, and BLS's description of shelter attendants is written around them.
The same occupation also reaches boarding kennels, zoos and aquariums — anywhere animals that are not raised for food need daily, hands-on care.
BLS's employer breakdown counts all animal caretakers — groomers, sitters and attendants together — not shelter attendants alone.
In 2025, BLS's employer shares for the occupation were other personal services at 40%, self-employment at 25%, professional, scientific and technical services at 10% (a group that includes veterinary clinics), retail trade at 9%, and arts, entertainment and recreation at 5%.
The published breakdown lists no shelter or rescue category, so treat those shares as the whole occupation rather than the shelter slice.
Hours follow the animals.
BLS notes that part-time work is common, schedules can include evenings, weekends and holidays, and facilities that run 24 hours, such as kennels and shelters, may need round-the-clock care.
What do you need to get hired?
The entry bar is low and well documented.
BLS says animal care and service workers typically have a high school diploma or equivalent, need no prior work experience in a related occupation, and learn the occupation on the job.
Many employers prefer to hire people who already have animal experience, per BLS.
O*NET places the occupation in Job Zone 1-2 — very little to some preparation needed — with on-the-job training that ranges from a few days to one year.
Ask in the interview how a new attendant is trained and who supervises the first solo rounds.
Employers also screen for fit.
BLS lists compassion, customer-service skills, detail orientation, patience, physical stamina, problem-solving and reliability as the important qualities in this work.
The physical side is real: the job includes moving and cleaning cages, lifting bags of food and exercising animals, and BLS says workers need the stamina to kneel, crawl and lift heavy supplies.
Volunteering is one route in.
The Association of Shelter Veterinarians' Guidelines count volunteers as part of a shelter's personnel and say training personnel — paid and unpaid — is necessary for safe, humane care.
That experience is exactly what many employers say they prefer, and postings show it concretely: Petco's Junior Groomer posting counts shelter volunteering or pet sitting toward its 0-1 year animal-related experience requirement.
That posting prefers a high school diploma or GED without requiring one.
Free training exists for the shelter setting specifically.
Fear Free's Shelter Program is free for shelter, rescue and animal welfare employees and volunteers and teaches how to reduce fear, anxiety and stress in shelter pets.
The four mandatory core modules take about five hours, each ends with an exam, and completion earns a Fear Free Shelter Program Certificate of Completion.
BLS's entry profile for the occupation lists a high school diploma or equivalent, on-the-job learning and preferred animal experience; certification does not appear in that profile.
Treat a credential as a way to build handling skill and show initiative, and let each posting tell you what that employer wants.
Age matters for teen applicants.
The federal child labor rules in 29 CFR part 570 set 16 as the general minimum age for non-agricultural employment.
Fourteen- and 15-year-olds may work only in occupations the regulations specifically permit, and that permitted list covers work such as office and clerical tasks, cashiering and selling, and clean-up work — it names no animal care, kennel or daycare occupation.
State rules and each employer's own posted minimum can differ, so check both before applying.
Confirm hiring rules before you apply
How much does an animal care attendant make?
Our sources carry no shelter-attendant-only wage.
Attendants sit inside animal caretakers, SOC 39-2021 — the occupation that also includes groomers, bathers, kennel and daycare attendants — so every figure here is for that occupation, labelled by its series.
BLS's Occupational Outlook Handbook reports a May 2025 median annual wage of $35,360 for animal caretakers, with the lowest 10 percent earning less than $27,250 and the highest 10 percent earning more than $50,060.
The hourly view of the same May 2025 OEWS survey puts the median at $17.00, with the 10th percentile at $13.10 and the 90th at $24.07.
On employment, the OEWS survey counted 266,910 animal caretaker jobs in May 2025.
That count covers wage-and-salary jobs only; self-employed groomers and sitters are not in it.
BLS's handbook headline for the wider animal care and service workers group, SOC 39-2000 — caretakers plus trainers — reads $35,530 per year or $17.08 per hour for 2025.
Industry detail matters if you are choosing a setting.
Animal caretakers in NAICS 812900 Other Personal Services — the industry group holding pet care services such as boarding and daycare alongside unrelated services — earned a median of $16.92 an hour ($35,190 a year) across 146,190 jobs in May 2025.
In veterinary services, NAICS 541940, the median was $15.46 an hour ($32,150 a year).
That vet-services figure sits below other personal services ($16.92) and other miscellaneous retailers including pet stores ($16.96).
For state-by-state tables and the full percentile detail, see the breakdown of animal care attendant pay on the salary page.
What is the career path?
The first rung is general care rounds.
With tenure, BLS says experienced attendants may take on more responsibility, including helping a veterinarian vaccinate or euthanize animals.
Move up and the titles change faster than the skills.
Our sources name no pet-resort- or shelter-manager occupation code at BLS; the closest stand-in, first-line supervisors of personal service workers (SOC 39-1022), earned a median of $21.98 an hour ($45,720 a year) in NAICS 812900 Other Personal Services in May 2025.
Treat that as a labelled proxy — the fact behind it names it for daycare and kennel manager roles — not a shelter-specific figure.
The veterinary bridge is the other direction.
BLS describes veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers as typically holding a high school diploma or equivalent, trained short-term on the job, with certification not mandatory; their May 2025 median pay was $38,150 per year ($18.34 an hour).
Veterinary technologists and technicians need more school — an associate's degree is the typical entry-level education — and earned a 2025 median of $47,380.
Credentialing for technicians runs through the states, most of which require a passing score on the Veterinary Technician National Exam.
That is a separate career with its own path, not a promotion from the kennel.
Demand gives the path a floor.
BLS's Employment Projections have animal caretaker employment growing 12% from 2025 to 2035, from 365,300 to 409,400 jobs, against 3% for all occupations.
Those projections include the self-employed.
BLS also projects about 69,400 openings a year on average for animal care and service workers — the group covering caretakers plus trainers — with most openings replacing workers who leave the occupation.
Pros and cons of the job
The case for the job: it is genuinely entry-level, with a high school diploma as the typical education and no prior work experience in a related occupation required.
Training happens on the job, and O*NET's preparation estimate runs from a few days to one year.
The work is hands-on animal care, part-time schedules are common, and the projections show steady openings through 2035.
The case against: the physical load, the sensory load and the schedule.
The work means moving and cleaning cages and lifting bags of food, and BLS says workers need the stamina to kneel, crawl and lift heavy supplies.
In O*NET's work-context survey, 78% of animal caretakers said they are exposed to distracting or uncomfortable noise every day, 56% said they stand continually or almost continually, and 56% reported working outdoors exposed to all weather every day.
Schedules reach evenings, weekends and holidays, and 24-hour facilities may need round-the-clock coverage.
The emotional weight is the part newcomers least expect.
BLS warns that the work can be emotionally distressing: shelter workers may see abused, injured or sick animals, and some caretakers help veterinarians euthanize animals.
Pay is the other honest trade-off.
The occupation's May 2025 median was $17.00 an hour, so modest pay is part of the bargain you make for daily animal time.
Where to find animal care attendant jobs
Animal shelters and rescue leagues hire attendants directly, and the same occupation reaches boarding kennels, zoos and aquariums.
Documented animal time moves an application up the pile — shelter or rescue volunteering, foster work or pet sitting all give you that record — and BLS says many employers prefer to hire people who already have animal experience.
Comfort with the routines the job actually runs on matters just as much, since disinfecting animal quarters and facility laundry are core tasks in the occupation.
So does availability — evenings, weekends, holidays and overnight rounds at 24-hour facilities.
GroomerHires lists animal care attendant jobs alongside grooming, kennel, daycare and boarding roles from pet care employers.
Browse animal care attendant jobs to see who is hiring right now.
Career information, not legal, tax, insurance or veterinary advice; confirm hiring requirements with each employer, and animal health questions with a veterinarian.