animal caretaker

thrift store associate

enforcement officer

shelter coordinator

veterinary technician

SPCA Nova Scotia

I have mixed feelings about this job. If you are an animal lover (which you should be if you are working here), the work is very rewarding. It can also be difficult at times if you care deeply for animals. You definitely have to have a system in place for self-care and decompression as unfortunately you will be dealing with animals being humanely euthanized. The staff are very compassionate towards animals and offer them the utmost respect in their final moments, which made me feel a lot better about things. 

The cons about this job would be the pay (which to be fair is to be expected when you work at a not-for-profit job). They offer annual reviews at which point you may get a pay raise. 

Additionally, the organization is incredibly unorganized. They have a very high turn over rate and are very understaffed. At one point, they had their administrative person training three different people at once, which if you have ever trained someone, you know that this would be extremely stressful and draining. I truly felt for her. 

There were also new hires constantly and it seemed like no one knew what their role was at all. They would hire people for a certain position, then add other aspects to their role, but no one in the location would be made aware and it would be pure chaos. 

There is no HR department, so if you have any issues with staff or management, you’re basically out of luck. 

That leads me to overtime hours. I wish that they had been more forthcoming about this prior to working here. You are EXPECTED to work past your hours, and if you would like to leave on time, you will be guilt-tripped and given dirty looks. I wouldn’t have minded if this had been mentioned during the interview process, but it was not, so I was completely blindsided. There were situations where staff were made to stay past their shift was over when they had appointments afterwards that they had to make. When they explained this to management they were basically told they did not care and that said staff member would have to stay. On top of this, I would not mind the requirement to stay past the end of my shift if they paid you for it fairly. However, they require you to put a REQUEST in for over time pay, it’s not automatic even though they can see when you clock in and out. There were also several instances (quite frequently actually) where staff had their requests declined. That to me is very shady and signifies a need for better organization and, even more importantly, an HR department. 

The head manager also held a meeting in which she said that moving forward, two staff must volunteer their time after their shift is over to finish certain tasks. If no one volunteered, she said she would be choosing two staff members to do so. Again, HR please. 

All in all, I found this job worth it because of how rewarding it was to see animals be rehabilitated and adopted out. 

But, if you are planning on applying, be prepared for all of the above. Also get a good pair of running shoes because you will be on your feet, walking, and lifting quite heavy. 

I worked at SPCA CB for five months, I was let go under the pretense of "structural changes" with two individuals from head office facilitating the departure, while the two managers I directly reported to were notably absent, which was disappointing. 
Throughout my time there, I struggled to integrate into the team, expressing my concerns to a liaison early on. It wasn't until the arrival of new colleagues that I began to feel a sense of camaraderie. 
Confidentiality does not exist here, both internally and externally- conversation/ situations had with my direct management that I believed to be private were brought up to me by other non-managerial staff. 
Moreover, the lack of staff education on supporting at-risk communities was concerning, particularly in terms of empathy and understanding for individuals from various backgrounds, including those living on reservations, experiencing homelessness, or managing mental health issues. Witnessing judgmental attitudes towards those seeking community support programs like the Pet Pantry was disheartening. 
Overall, the environment often felt isolating and lacked the necessary education and empathy to effectively serve a diverse clientele.

This job is difficult, it’s demanding, it’s time consuming, it’s detrimental to your home-work life balance but that’s the job. That’s what I signed up for, to “save life’s and create families”, but the hardest part about this job is dealing with the bullying and harassment within the upper management and the clique of the SPCA. 

The NS SPCA has been the hardest management I have ever worked for. They are petty, they are condescending, they are dehumanising, they are looking for followers and not leaders.

If you want to keep your mental health positive and ever have a career in law enforcement RUN. Do not weave the web that is this underpaid, extremely understaffed, toxic work environment. 

And remember it’s not all puppies and kitties at this workplace environment.

Management is awful and very cliquey. There is little training and the amount they expect you to do for the pay and staff scheduled is ridiculous. They will run you dry and never commend hard work but will get written up if they heard about you confiding in co workers about things. They pretend that they want to hear any concerns but never do anything about it and will use it against you to fire “without cause”. They people at the provincial office don’t actually care about the animals and are purely business based and the amount of dog euthanasia for being a “non kill shelter” is insane. You will rarely ever leave at the end of the day when your shift is suppose to be done. If you care about animals and their well-being I would not suggest working here.

Didn’t seem like they had enough staff members to compensate for the high volume of animals in the shelter. My first week working there I received warnings about the management team being difficult/frustrating as well as how exhausted and overworked they all felt. Some coworkers would cry regularly, not just from the emotional difficulty of the job, but because they worked such long days and were expected to stay past the time they were scheduled most days. They are doing great things for animals but it needs to be managed better and the staff need to be supported.

The work was not difficult at all despite constant criticism and micromanaging by PO staff. Loved working with the animals but could not sneeze without PO shaming you all the way to the CEO. 

A great place to work as long as you are in it for the right reasons. If you strive to ensure animals and understand what exactly this job entails it's truly an incredible place to work. They appreciate staff that work hard, give feedback and are communicative in what is expected.

I was fired after working a year for them, they don't follow their own policies. They are very well known for wrongfully firing employees.
I have worked for them extremely hard but they have shown cruelty in how they fired me. Extremely toxic. Lots of issues with internal management regarding politics.

They wouldn't rehire me after maternity leave. Wouldn't budge on flexibility and just stopped responding to emails trying to sort out a new schedule to accommodate my new need for childcare. Would recommend to students but that's it. 

The SPCA has given me so many opportunities for education and I am learning something new everyday. The work can be tough but it is so worth it and rewarding. It is not all animals though, there is alot of cleaning involved which is important for disease control. 

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Animal caretaker 18 salaries reported	$16.86 per hour
Thrift store associate 8 salaries reported	$16.28 per hour
Enforcement officer 3 salaries reported	$22.67 per hour
Shelter coordinator 1 salary reported	$22.00 per hour
Veterinary technician 3 salaries reported	$24.83 per hour

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