Kennel Attendant Jobs

At the Humane Society for Hamilton County, caring for animals isn’t just a job – it’s our passion. The impact we make is life-changing for the animals in our care and the people who love them. If you would like to spend your work days with animals in our beautiful new state-of-the-art facility and make a difference, the Kennel Attendant position may be the perfect fit for you!

The purpose of our Kennel staff is to provide support to the Animal Care Manager and oversight of the daily care of the animals in the facility. The Kennel staff will provide exceptional care to all shelter animals, in regards to cleanliness, handling, and ensuring proper care. This role serves as a liaison to all staff to ensure staff and volunteers work directly with the animals to provide enrichment, identify concerns behavioral or medical and communicate with proper manager.

Duties & Responsibilities

Kennel Staff is responsible for coordinating the daily activities including, but not limited to:

• Daily walk through of the kennel areas checking each animal individually for any abnormal activity such as vomiting, diarrhea, or blood in the cage or run.

• Reports all abnormal activity to supervisors immediately. (Ensure to place a note in the medical binders.

• Recognizes emergency situations, enlisting the aid of supervisors or veterinarians.

• Feeds and waters animals according to schedules and protocols.

• Cleans and maintains kennel area of facility, in such a manner as to provide an odor free and low stress environment for the animals.

• Cleans and disinfects cages, runs and yards as needed using hoses and spray bottles of disinfectant.

• Cleans and disinfects all food and water bowls.

• Picks up soiled bedding and moves it to laundry area.

• Places clean bedding in run with animals.

• Administers medications to those animals that require medications when medical staff need assistance.

• Handles all animals accordingly.

• Works outside all year round, part of the job requires working without the aid of air conditioning for periods of time.

• Restraint of animals as needed.

• Maintains all HSHC equipment.

• Provides friendly and professional interactions with clients and animals while doing showings for potential adoptions to determine if an adoption can move forward.

• Ensures to provide exceptional customer service and customer satisfaction at all times.

• Ability to apply common sense understanding to carry out detailed but uninvolved written or oral instructions.

• Safely place a leash on dogs and transfer them between cages and locations and walk them outdoors for exercise and to eliminate. Keep pets safely under your control at all times.

• Performs additional duties as assigned.

Qualifications, Applicants must:

• Be flexible to work some nights and weekends while providing reliable transportation
• Be a natural people-person & “cheerleader” who positively motivates others & has a knack for diplomacy
• Be able to lift a minimum of 50lbs without health risk.
• Be a self-starter with a lot of initiative, problem solving skills & the ability to work with minimal supervision
• Experience in behavior modification and training programs (Meet your Match, SAFER Testing, etc.) a plus!
• Be able to excel in a high paced work environment where you are surrounded by the distractions of animal sounds, smells and their respective allergens
• Embrace our No-Kill Philosophy
• Be an excellent communicator—both written and verbal

Benefits Package:

• Full-Time employees are eligible for benefits after 60 days of employment. HSHC offers several insurance options, including but not limited to medical (Anthem), dental, vision, Long/Short Term Disability, FSA/HSA, Identity Theft Protection, and Life Insurance.
• Certifications/Professional Development Training provided/funded by HSHC based on role and relevance.
• Retirement plan option available.
• Generous vacation and paid time off accrued from day one.
• Robust Pet Benefits Package for employee owned pets. Includes annual vaccines, diagnostics, x-rays, preventatives, and prescription medications (requires a DVM script) at cost. Other select pet supplies like potty pads, carriers, food, bowls, bedding, etc. are available at no cost in the designated ‘free’ storage bins.