18/07/2025
Please be kind to your animal professions - trainers, groomers, veterinarians, vet techs, shelter and rescue workers etc.
Although from the outside our job may seem like a “dream career” to most, the majority of us in this profession carry an immense burden on our backs every day. It is amazing to do what you love every day, but what we love also can come with a cost. We spend our days as a counselor, a mediator, a translator, a teacher, a caregiver, a cheerleader and so much more. We wear so many hats just in one day.
To be a good animal handler and worker you have to have been blessed with extreme empathy, hyper vigilance and at times be infuriatingly compassionate. We need to feel deeply, be constantly aware of body language and signals and always helpful. We often times put others needs well above our own and can push ourselves to the point of emotional exhaustion if not careful. We truly take our work home with us a lot, sometimes literally but almost always in our hearts and minds too. We can’t just punch out at the end of the day and forget what we’ve seen, heard, tried to fix etc. Compassion fatigue, depression and anxiety are very common in this field and it’s one of the reasons i am so grateful for my group of fellow colleagues who know to check in when needed.
This doesn’t mean we don’t WANT to help. It means that there are things you can do to help your animal professionals each day.
- Update us with good news when you can. We get panicked, hysterical, tense and terrible emails and calls every day. It truly breaks it up for us when we get an update telling us things are going well.
- Respect our family and down time. Calling 3 times in a row then emailing then texting then calling again at 8pm at night can send us into a tailspin of guilt and panic. Guilt at not being able to answer OR leaving family to answer or panic at what could possibly have happened/gone wrong. We will always get back at a timely manner, but we need to take a breath too.
- support our causes. Share our events, celebrate our victories, and donate when you can to things that you can. Knowing we aren’t alone in the battles we fight makes a huge difference sometimes.
- forgive our strangeness. We are people too, and yes we have lots of animals and may make strange jokes or wear weird t-shirts but it’s all what makes us unique and special in the community. Everyone needs at least one crazy dog friend. Forgive us for being the one who always has dog hair on our clothes no matter what the occasion.
- when you see us outside of work, talk to us about something - ANYTHING - but our work, unless we ask first. We love our job but we also love to talk about things apart from the consistency of your pets last bowel movement or a new leash you found online in a sale. Ask us about our family, the weather, anything! It shows us that you value us as a person not just as a service.
- laugh and cry with us. Understand that your victories are our victories. We truly feel that attached to your animals and you. Many of my clients become like family to me and I have laughed and cried right along with them as they went on their journey together.
- remember we may get things wrong sometimes. We may not always know. We are human and still very capable of mistakes, even small ones. Life is too short to sweat the small stuff, so forgive us if we mess up sometimes.
- and of course, lastly, refer friends to us. Knowing you trust us with people and animals you love is the biggest compliment you can give us, on top of letting us help you. It also shows us you enjoyed your experience enough to send others and that is a huge accomplishment.
Thanks for reading. ❤️
- Helen St. Pierre
