Animal Care Assistant

**Job title**:Animal Care Assistant - (Dog, Cat, Small Animal and Reception cover)

**Branch**:Suffolk Central Branch

**Location**:RSPCA Animal Centre, Martlesham, IP12 4PD

**Line manager**:Animal Centre Manager

**Hours **37.5 hours per week including every other weekend

**Job purpose**
Provide care for animals at the centre, establish good customer relations and maintain administration producers in use.

**Main responsibilities**:

- Ensure all health and safety measures and procedures are observed and adhered to by staff, volunteers and the general public within the Animal Centre, reporting any accidents, near misses, or incidents promptly and correctly in accordance with the Animal Centre procedures.
- Assist with the preliminary assessment, ongoing inspection and or treatment of animals by the veterinary surgeon, or other authorised person at the Animal Centre.
- Attend to the needs of the individuals, including exercise, coat care/grooming, administration of first aid, treatments and medications as directed.
- Complete thorough non-veterinary health assessments in collaboration with other staff, of animals entering and leaving the Animal Centre, including taking temperatures, inspection of eyes, ears, nose and throat for signs of infection or abnormality, reporting any concerns to the Centre Manager.
- Ensure and check the completion of all associated reports e.g. Anilog database
- Ongoing assessment in conjunction with other staff members of animals within the Animal Centre with respect to their health, welfare, behaviour and suitability for re-homing, drawing attention to superiors of animals who are not considered to be healthy and/or require veterinary treatment.
- Regularly inspect all equipment within the Animal Centre, with early reporting of any defects or deficiencies found, also responsible for/assisting with stock control of equipment, feeding and cleaning supplies.
- Assist with ordering, stock rotation, presentation, Animal Centre shop sales and stock taking.
- Operation of the cash register and safe receipt of moneys, maintaining daily cash records as directed.
- Clean, disinfect and maintain a high standard of cleanliness set by management, animal accommodation, isolation and exercise areas; food preparation, laundry, storage, treatment and in some instance’s destruction facilities, reception, offices, stores, staff facilities including toilets and outside areas and ensure buildings/exercise areas are secure at all times.
- Acting as the first point of contact for public enquiries of animals within the Animal Centre and assisting the Centre Manager with fundraising and public events for the Animal Centre along with visits by schools or other groups.
- Record temperatures on each animal section to ensure they are acceptable and put provisions in place to0 maintain temperatures required by licensing.
- Identify a suitable diet, prepare and provide food and water for the animals in our care.
- To carry out routine animal behaviour monitoring/assessments prior to rehoming and to design and implement behavioural training plans where needed. To keep managers informed on the progress/outcome of behavioural plans and to raise any cause for concerns.
- Complete documentation and maintain computerised and paper records relating to the acceptance and release of animals.
- Attend to the needs of the client/customer/public, face to face or via the telephone regarding animals at the centre and to undertake initial assessment of an animal and prospective adopter’s suitability to one another and to provide ongoing support and advise post adoption.
- To undertake other duties as required by the Centre Manager. Other tasks undertaken by the jobholder _may_ include, but are not limited to:

- Assisting with educational visits/talks
- Post adoption advice to clients
- Implanting of microchips and completion of microchip records
- Assisting and creating animal’s promotional initiatives
- Taking temporary care of wildlife accepted into the centre pending transfer.
- Writing kennel cards and taking photos of animals for use on adoption write ups, press releases and our website.

In addition to your normal duties, you may occasionally be required to undertake such other reasonable duties as necessary to meet the needs of the Branch.

This job description is a statement of the job content required as of September 2020. It should not be seen as precluding future changes.

**Knowledge, skills and experience**
a) Education qualifications:

- Animal Care qualification at least Level 3 (essential).
- Degree level qualification in Animal related studies (desirable).

b) Professional/Technical Qualifications/Skills:

- Sound literacy and numeracy skills (essential).
- Good communication skills and customer care skills (essential).
- Team player (essential).
- Full UK manual driving licence (essential).

c) Experience:

- Experience of domestic animal care and husbandry from working in the animal care/welfare