Careers with animals!!

I'm sorry - but in what way do zookeepers, let alone petstore owners help animals?!

I don't know how much money is in wildlife caring, as far as i know its on a volunteer basis. (thats the case with WIRES at least. there may be a few paid people in each region tho) I suggest getting involved anyways though. Do a wildlife carer course, that way you can start working with animals now. even though you won't get paid, it will give you a much better platform down the track for getting paid work in an animal industry. The stuff you learn in these courses is not only super interesting, it's really, really useful!
i suggest looking at what else you're interested in, or good at, and seeing if there are any careers working with animals that also use your natural strengths.

being either one of those, you have control over what happens to those animals, when they are under your power. No evil zookeepers. it is the people who BUY from petstores that are the real problem...

Yep, these are definately my least fav.

I absolutely abhor Pet Shops, particularly for the sale of pets encouraging backyard breeding (contributing to thousands of strays being euthanased every year due to impulse buying), but also the training and hence bad advise given to new pet owners.

A zookeeper doesn't have complete control over what happens, they have no voice in saying whether these animals are caged or not - I'm sure a lot of zookeepers have great care for animals, but most won't be vegan, they still think animals are ours to use. And a pet store is specifically a place that sells animals, animals shouldn't be sold at all, whether dead or alive. If you care about animals I just don't think your dream career should be in that field at all. Yes the people are the problem, but to own a pet store is running one completely, if you don't own one that's one less pet store.

If you like dogs or cats work in a shelter, if you like wild animals, work in rehabilitation centres.

If you're not a fan of science, and if you're willing to work really, really, REALLY hard, law is your best bet. You have the ability to not only prosecute animal abusers, defend organizations such as PETA, Animal Lib etc, but also achieve change through the legal system - acquiring tougher penalties for animal abusers, being on the frontlines of arguing against factory farms etc. check out http://www.voiceless.org.au/

The other option, which you'll have to wait some years for, is politics - something I'm pretty interested in. For instance, look at Senator Xenophon from South Australia. He got almost a billion dollars (from memory) for the Murray-Darling Basin - all because Kevin Rudd needed his vote in the Senate. However, imagine if instead of Senator Xenophon, one of us were there. For K.Rudd to "buy" our vote we may say, "ok kevin, I’ll pass this legislation IF you boycott the live trade and sow stalls within Australia." It's totally possible! I wouldn't mind doing this in say 20 years - however, I don‘t think I really have the capacity to gain heaps of votes. However, if we keep on pushing veganism so it becomes mainstream, it's entirely possible. If you interested in this get familiar with The Greens - they're most likely to support the causes you do: http://www.greensmps.org.au/

Also of course have a chat to some of the people that work for Animals Australia. But yeh, like Apple Scruff said, pet shops and zoos really aren't a good place to look if you want to help animals - those places are suited more to people who wish to exploit them.

I went to this talk by a vegan lawyer at the start of the year. It was sponsored by voiceless or something. I think going into law would be good, in a way. But I think a lot of animal lawyers, aside from persecuting animal abusers, push for new regulations in farming practices, and I don't think regulating cruelty will get the animal rights movement anywhere. If you check out the documentary Behind the Mask (which is about ALF, it's really great, find it on youtube) there's a lawyer there that defends animal rights activists. I think this is one of the most important things lawyers can do for animals - there are so many activists overseas that are in prison, they need all the support we can give them!

A politician would be good also, but like I said, it'd be more about making regulations, I don't like the compromise. People are renowned for selling out when they become politicians too, check out Peter Garrett ha.

I doing something in education would be a great thing, like writing a book or something... and if you like arts/english focus on philosophy, or become an artist. Check out Sue Coe's work - I wish I had her talent, her works are so powerful.

Yeh, but I think the problem of getting an abolitionist elected into parliament would be just that - getting them elected. However, that is where we can in. If we can make animal rights somewhat mainstream - or at least become not SUCH a minority - we could get a senator in there for us.

I think the problem with Peter is that he joined the wrong party - having to listen and do what k.rudd says. If he was, say an independent, I think we would all like old wobbly arms himself a lot more.

yeh, even something like a teacher would be great. you could plant that seed that is animal rights into those tiny minds for moulding or at least, get your students thinking about it -especially if their secondary students.