Description

The Animal Welfare Specialist provides humane animal care and superior customer service at the new Atlanta Humane Society (AHS) - Roswell in accordance with the AHS mission, goals and management philosophy. This unique facility seeks to provide a welcoming space for potential adopters and the local community.  The AWS supports humane animal husbandry by providing physical and emotional enrichment to all animals, and through feeding, cleaning, and daily maintenance of the kennel facilities. In addition to animal care, the AWS assists resource center guests by providing information regarding humane animal care, promoting and executing AHS services, programs, and events, facilitating visitations with animals, and counseling potential adopters which includes exceptional human customer service, compassion for our human families and facilitating great human-animal matches.    

Duties and Responsibilities

• Provide animals with adequate food, water, exercise, and daily emotional enrichment
• Observe, record, and report on animal health and behavior
• Maintain animal care records to ensure proper feeding and medicating, and ensure animals receive timely attention from a veterinarian as needed
• Handle animals in a humane manner according to established safety policies and procedures
• Clean and sanitize animal habitats according to the AHS cleaning and disease control protocols
• Maintain a clean, safe, and professional environment for the animals and the public
• Report building and equipment maintenance concerns promptly
• Stock food and supplies, laundry, and dishes as assigned
• Deliver superior customer service to clients, affiliates, corporate partners, and visitors
• Collaborate with other departments to accomplish departmental and organizational goals
• Promote a culture of teamwork, positivity, and provide aid to other staff and volunteers
• Provide customers with organizationally approved content such as basic medical information, behavior profiles, breed information, and adoption package benefits to help clients make good choices.
• Council potential adopters, following AHS guidelines and complete adoption paperwork, generate receipts, and maintain animal records in animal management database
• Supports leadership in coordination, sourcing, and transport of adoptable animals for the center, events, and medical care as needed.
• Supports Foster Program personnel and Foster families to aid in the adoption of foster animals
• Support the center’s volunteer program, ensuring volunteers are effectively engaged and utilized.
• Monitors inventory and promotes sales of retail at the location
• Executes program activity, including education series and events, adoption events, pet wellness services, and foster/volunteer cultivation activity
• Other duties as assigned

Handling of Monies

• Receive payments from patrons and provide receipts for purchases and adoptions using the point-of-sale system
• Solicit donations and promote the sale of items in the AHS shop
• Balance cash drawers when required, and submit monies and reports to the Accounting Office
• Report cash discrepancies to a manager immediately
• Record transactions, reconcile monies for daily deposits, and handle agency funds according to protocol

Qualifications

• High school diploma or GED equivalent
• Six months previous customer service experience in an office or retail business setting preferred
• Six months experience in a similar capacity in an animal shelter, veterinary hospital or clinic preferred
• Computer literate in a Windows environment required
• Knowledge of animal diseases, medications and treatment protocols preferred
• Ability to utilize effective problem solving/decision making skills
• Ability to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing
• Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to work in a team environment
• Desire to work with animals and people
• Experience in handling/reconciling funds preferred
• Ability to multi-task and handle a high stress, emotional environment
• Must be able to set aside personal judgement for the betterment of the client and the animals
• Must be able to communicate with and work well with a diverse clientele, different races, ethnicities, faiths, sexual orientations, income levels, etc.
• Valid GA driver’s license or ability to obtain a valid GA driver’s license and must be insurable by Society’s insurance company

Working Conditions

• Requires humane handling of animals and safe handling of cleaning supplies, chemicals and equipment in compliance with safety rules and according to SDS rules
• Ability to lift, pull or push up to 50 lbs. with reasonable accommodations
•    Required to follow AHS uniform policy
• Works in a high noise level area
• Physical efforts require constant bending, stooping and standing
• Safety procedures must be adhered to without exception
• Exposure to dogs and cats of all sizes and varying degrees of behavior and/or medical conditions
• Exposure to animal waste and common allergens 

Salary : $15