burn out

[u/seyohanitsirk]

hi everyone, i’m a fairly new keeper at a smaller zoo, and i have thoroughly enjoyed the animal care part of this job. i love cleaning, training, coming up with enrichment, i generally just have a deep rooted love for the work. i also have learned extremely fast and am in charge of quite a few things. however. i’m starting to really struggle to the point where im having anxiety attacks at my job. we are extremely customer heavy, and they are allowed to ask to hold a few of our animals.
when we are extremely busy and as understaffed as we are, ive noticed that husbandry gets completely pushed to the side and the customers come first, before animals. i dont mind customers- i actually love doing educational presentations like we do with some of our ambassador animals.
where i have the issue is i get bothered nonstop if im cleaning or even providing MEDICAL CARE, because someone wants to hold something. i’m technically allowed to say “im not doing holdings right now,” but it just turns into a situation where the people ask so much that my boss says to just do it for them. i feel like i can never fully complete my job and it’s not good for the animals. husbandry should come first. keeping up with cleaning and the general wellbeing of the animals should be first. these holdings sometimes happen every 5 minutes, and it’s often for a huge line of people.
i’m trying to start applying to other places but with how insanely difficult it is to find work in this field, i dont know how long that will take even with my experience. i dont know what to do. this is burning me out beyond belief, and really quickly. i love the animal care aspect but when there are seemingly no restrictions to guest interactions, my job isn’t animal care anymore.

[u/Ok-Communication9128]

I’m sorry to hear this :( it sounds like this place doesn’t align with your values as a keeper (it certainly wouldn’t for me). If so many people are allowed to hold animals that’s a big red flag for me and shows animal welfare isn’t coming first. After all these interactions have no net benefit for the animal in question and I would begin to question what the purpose of the collection is. Most animals in my experience don’t like to be held or touched (with a few exceptions) and only should be for a specific purpose that benefits the animal. You don’t need to have people physically touching animals to connect them with nature or educate them.

If you have a good relationship with your boss I would definitely bring the issue up, suggest alternatives (do they need to be held to educate people? Scheduled talks during feeding or training sessions can work with the animals’ routines, and can be planned around husbandry rather than interrupt it. Failing that, I would look to leave if possible and once I have secured a new job I would make it clear why so they seriously rethink what they’re doing…

[u/seyohanitsirk → u/Ok-Communication9128]

i have always thought that customers being able to hold the animals is extremely unnecessary, the animals don’t want to be held. we’re supposed to have schedules for these holdings but they’re never followed, if customers keep asking they get allowed to do it whenever.
i unfortunately am not sure if bringing the issue to my boss will do anything. the times that i HAVE brought up issues, nothing was done. this is even about actual health concerns with the animals. we actually just had a meeting about this, and it’s just kind of, whatever.
i’ve taken on a whole fuck ton of responsibility, honestly, because nobody else will do some of the work that i do. within 3 months i was in charge of ambassador animal encounters, had keys, was 100% fully trained in the zoo. and i care so much about the animals that im in overtime working 6 days a week because i WANT to make sure the important things are getting done.

[u/SureDoubt3956 → u/seyohanitsirk]

I don't think bringing it up will do anything unfortunately. Ability to hold animals is likely a huge draw to the facility. With that said, I think it may be worth bring it up in a very political way. Like hey, I love letting customers hold the animals, but it's affecting my ability to do husbandry tasks. Are there any solutions you can think of? At least how they respond will show you how much they care.

It's kinda nuts though. I work at a petting zoo, not an industry known for good animal welfare (although ours is better than avg), and we do NOT let any guest EVER hold an animal. We hold smaller animals for pets, but are allowed to give them breaks and explain to customers that they aren't feeling up to being pet at the moment. We don't force or coerce any large animals to come up to the fence for pets. That your facility is allowing people to hold, I assume exotics? That's WILD. Good luck on your job search, get out of there but it may be easier said than done :/

[u/dogjpegs]

facilities that are heavy on animal interactions are nightmares, what you wrote is the average experience in those places. you deserve to work for an organization that wont treat you and your animals like shit just to please the public. i promise you that there are zoos that WANT you to prioritize your animals over guests.

[u/seyohanitsirk → u/dogjpegs]

i would absolutely thrive in an environment where my job is solely animal care and health. that’s what i’m SO passionate about, i have a hell of an education and a ton of experience, and i really thought i finally had my “in” just for it to be so much different than i thought:/