Currently Hiring for: Cat Adoption Advocate (FT)

Cat Adoption Advocate- Full Time

The Cat Adoption Advocates are essential components of our staff at the Beatrice Humane Society. For more details on the position, please see Cat Adoption Advocate Job Description below.  If you are interested in employment at the Beatrice Humane Society, please submit an Employment Application linked below. If needed hard copies are available at our shelter.

This positions current schedule is Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday 8:30am-6:30pm with paid 30 minute lunch breaks. Please indicate on your email or application if that schedule is acceptable.  

General Position Summary:

The Cat Adoption Advocate will be responsible for providing primary care for all cats currently in our adoption kennels as well as customer service tasks to include working to identify good homes for dogs, cats, and other animals both at the shelter and at off- site adoption events, while creating a positive experience for prospective adopters. Additionally, the cat advocate will assist owners from the community through the rehoming process including counselling on behaviors or management, medical care and other pet retention support programs and then if still needed work with the owner to transition the pet into our shelter program. This job is approximately 50% animal care and 50% client communication.

Responsibilities include:

1. Providing daily care for cats in the 22 front adoption kennels including food, litter box, health checks and medications when needed. Assist with other cat husbandry tasks including vaccinations, microchips, blood draws, wound care, bathing etc as training continues.
2. Laundry, dishes, taking our recycling/trash, sweeping, mopping and all other custodial tasks needed to keep shelter clean and prepared for the next animals in need at all times.
3. Providing high quality, professional customer service and communication with all visitors, volunteers, staff and board members with providing the high levels of care our animals deserve.
4. Operating as the first person visitors to our shelter interact with, offering a smile and a willingness to listen with compassion and understanding in all situations and providing professional, respectful responses in all interactions.
5. Communicating with the general public, specifically talking in person or digitally through email/text/facebook with prospective adopters to find out what they are looking for in a pet.
6. Ιnteracting with/getting to know the animals and talking with prospective adopters about the available animals in order to make the best possible match. Creating Adoptin Bios and helping to market long stay or special cases.
7. Photographing animals (strays and adoptable animals as well as adoptions), updating digital files, posting stray pets, helping document animal journeys through our shelter, and keeping records of adoption stories for social media/ PR follow up.
8. Willingness and ability to learn about cat and dog behavior and medical care, common issues, and ways to address them in order to make good adoption matches and to keep animals in homes.
9. Τransporting animals, cages and other equipment to and from off-site events, adoption centers, transport meetups, other shelters and resuces and our spay and neuter clinic. This is almost exclusively in our shelter vehicles (ford transit connect compact van, ford E-350 cargo van).
10. Monitoring the health of the animals on an ongoing basis and rapidly identifying any health problems or conditions (medical or behavioral) and immediately reporting it to the shelter director or veterinary team.
11. Treating all animals humanely, properly, and with compassion at all times, regardless of the situation or circumstance and promoting a humane and caring attitude toward all animals.
12. Learning and assisting other sections of the shelter, not limited to, but including medical care, off-site events, dog care, hospitalized animals, small critters etc.
13. All other tasks as directed by shelter and medical staff.

Specific Job Skills:

1. Ability to read, write and understand English. Reading, speaking or understanding a second language, especially Spanish is a plus.
2. Basic computer literacy including moving between programs, basic google searches, typing, gmail, google calander, and google drive. Willingness to learn Petpoint, our computer database for all animal medical,  intake and outcome records.
3. Strong interpersonal skills. The ideal person for this job would be personable, outgoing, patient, professional, and able to get along well with a variety of people.
4. Excellent written and oral communications skills. The ability to navigate emotionally charged conversations without becoming aggressive or unpleasant.
5. Familiarity with animals, knowledge of animal behavior or experience volunteering or working with a rescue group, humane society, foster care involvement or other animal welfare agency are a plus.
6. Comfort and ability to work with animals of unknown disposition and those who may exhibit medical and other problems, as well as occasionally aggressive tendencies. We will provide training on handling scared and fractious animals as our staff safety is our biggest priority followed closely by animal safety.
7. Affection for animals, concern for their welfare, and a willingness to advocate for them.

Physical Requirements:

1. Physical ability to walk and/or stand on your feet throughout a normal ten hour workday required.
2. Physical ability to engage in repetitive motions of legs, arms, and hands, to hear, to see, to move animals and supplies.
3. Allergic conditions, which prohibit handling or working with animals, may be a disqualification.
4. Educational Requirements: High school graduation/GED, plus two years of consistent employment history or volunteer experience.
5. Availability: BHS is open six days a week, and has staff on site 7 days a week as animals need daily care. This job will have some scheduled holidays that are paid at time and a half.

To apply or for additional inquiries, send your resume and cover letter to cfiddes@beatricehumanesociety.org

Contact the Shelter Manager, Carlee Fiddes, for inquires and to obtain an employment application via email shelter@beatricehumanesociety.org or phone 402-228-9100