veterinary technician

veterinary technician ii

animal adoption specialist

thrift store associate

animal care specialist

Arizona Humane Society

Being an Operations Supervisor (or any level of Leadership: Coordinator, Supervisor, Manager) with AHS is not for the faint of heart or anyone with limited physical and mental resilience. Animal Welfare does have a high turnover rate for these reasons. We don't do this simply because we "love animals," we do this because working at AHS is more than just loving animals. We enjoy the consistent chaos of the ever-changing animal welfare environment, solving extremely difficult problems and challenges, and advocating for both pets and people. It takes a very strong person to withstand the daily struggles that are out of our control in Animal Welfare. Being an Operations Supervisor can be extremely rewarding because you have the opportunity to save the lives of helpless pets while also making a positive impact on the teams that you manage. In front-facing department Supervisor roles, you work directly with the public to intake pets, review cruelty, abandonment, and humane living conditions, connect pet owners with resources, assist your team with Adoption and Foster matchmaking, provide education and outreach to the community, and help generate donations, all while promoting excellent internal and external customer service. In in-shelter Supervisor roles, you assist with the pet's lifecycle through the shelter by promoting pet care, pet enrichment, ensuring high standards of care, supporting a low pet length of stay, and supporting medical and behavioral treatment and decisions to provide the best care and outcome for a pet. Most departments support promotion internally. Before applying for a role at AHS, it's recommended to start as a volunteer. Working through all levels of volunteer training and working in all areas of the shelter allows you to have a good understanding of this field before committing to a career in a high-turnover field. 
The hardest part of the job as an Operations Supervisor is always being the answer for the department/organization's lack of resource planning and limited staff salary budget. You often will have to take on additional roles and duties due to limited staffing budgets or high turnover rates, and you will not receive additional compensation before pay merit increases occur. If you are salary, you are expected to work or check in on your days off as needed, sometimes without you or your manager finding another day off later in the week to compensate. If you enjoy consistently being on your toes in a high-stress environment, you will be a successful Operations Supervisor. 
The most enjoyable parts of being an Operations Supervisor are assisting with making decisions that support innovation within the organization, team building, leading and developing your team, the supportive work culture, and of course, saving the lives of pets that cannot save themselves. Operations Supervisors in this organization care about their teams and support employee growth. Operations Supervisors do what is within their role to ensure a healthy work-life balance to avoid turnover. However, Operations Supervisors often have to support conflicting priorities and decisions to do what is best for the business/organization.  
AHS Operations Supervisors are the most compassionate, hard-working, and driven individuals because they truly are passionate about the work that they do, but are often stressed, and can burn out regularly due to the same reasons. 

 the higher ups are paid bank while their lower level employees suffer to scrape by all while being told it’s a non profit and that’s why. The higher ups including supervisors all get yearly raises and bonus but you won’t. The point of non profit is we’re all in this together, the money goes to the animals and employees should be given a livable wage if they can afford to do so, which they can. 
Animal care doesn’t have good management and are turning over the staff that are saying something about it. The only good thing about this department is they aren’t really micromanaging you except they’ll keep a file with every mistake or complaint on you without ever talking to you about it and use that against you when you request a raise or need to do anything they don’t want (go to another department, need to switch shifts). By far their biggest issue is communication between supervisors and Coordinators, you will hear 100 different versions all far from what you actually need to do none of them are ever on the same page. Their best trait is their ability to gaslight their employees, and sit in their office talking about how useless their employees are. I highly recommend avoiding this department if you want to work with humane. They make it nearly impossible to get out of this department and treat their employees bad. Also I highly suggest getting everything they promise in writing, they tried to stiff me on paying me for a shift change where I would be making more but then told me it was a “trial period” after I had already worked those shifts. I had to put up a fight to get paid. Everyone in different departments and my coworkers were great, the only people that made you feel like you were “lowest on the totem pole” was animal care management. They need to clear house of this management ASAP cause they’re chasing away all of the good employees that actually care. 

I’d like to start by saying this was a job that I’ve wanted for years. I have a ton of animal experience and I had always supported the Arizona Humane Society in any way possible for myself; donating, adopting, etc. The entire hiring process took me about two months from the initial interview offer to my start date. It took me about a week at a time to get any sort of communication after being told that I would get a response the next day. This should’ve been a red flag for me from the beginning, but as I stated before, this was a job I had been wanting for a long time. Once my start date finally came around, I was incredibly excited. I started making friends with my coworkers and I thought everything was going really, really well. I left one day and went home, and then received a phone call and would only be provided the answer that I “wasn’t a cultural fit” and that I was being let go, which was essentially HR language for “we don’t like your personality.” For an organization that supposedly wants to help animals, they are incredibly picky and have a record high turn-over rate. We were understaffed during every single shift. I was warned by coworkers on my first day that the management in my department was awful and that I should be careful and tread lightly. All I can do now is warn others. This experience has affected me greatly and I honestly don’t think I will ever be able to approach a job with the same enthusiasm.


It is difficult to come up with an accurate summary of my experience in the role. The workplace culture in general is good, most people show up to work with passion and a desire to change the lives of animals. Co workers on the behavior team (in general) were some of the best people in the field and I am grateful for meeting them and getting to work alongside them. Do not expect adequate pay, but it is the field unfortunately. The work can cause burn out (difficult cases, euthanasia, handling aggressive and severely fearful animals) but this was not my reason for leaving the role. 

There is a chronic issue with communication from management and leadership. This includes lies to different team members, clear favoritism among team members, immaturity and disrespect towards various individuals and inconsistent behaviors towards their employees. Do not expect access to promotions unless you are selected as a personal management favorite, but even then, it is not guaranteed for fair opportunities. 

In general, the job itself is rewarding, challenging at times but overall, enjoyable if you have the right mindset and personality for it. Management is often disappointing and unprofessional, but with recent new leadership over management, there is hope for improvement. 

Your coworkers and the animals are the only reason you will opt to stay on for however long. Management or "leadership" in all departments have high egos and have an easy time telling you how poor of a job you're doing while never truly working the job themselves. That is only when you actually see them, they're often hard to find or get ahold of. They are the worst communicators, yet very heavy delegators and will always micromanage your punches and OT but only in order to use it against you. Their favoritism is incredibly visible and you will be made to feel uncomfortable and like you are the one at fault if you go to HR about anything. HR only cares about the public image of AHS, and nothing about your safety, mentally or physically. There is no real training provided, and because of how high paced the job is, you are thrown into a "sink or swim" environment. Everything you say gets used against you, but only at review time. You will not get any prior conversations with leadership or ever get an ability to explain yourself. Prior to that, whenever you ask for feedback you receive nothing but false praise to lower you defenses. The gaslighting at AHS and creation of self-doubt is crippling. I strongly recommend volunteering first or simply a different organization if you are wanting to work at an animal shelter. 

This was one of the most discouraging work environments I’ve experienced. While the organization promotes positive values outwardly, the internal culture does not reflect them.

Management and HR operate in a way that feels cold, inconsistent, and more focused on control than support. Expectations shift without warning, communication lacks transparency, and employees are often left guessing what will be considered “acceptable” from one day to the next. Rather than coaching or collaboration, the default response seems to be scrutiny and punishment.

There is little tolerance for employees who ask questions, advocate for themselves, or need understanding during difficult circumstances. The environment fosters fear rather than growth, and morale reflects that. Concerns are met with defensiveness instead of accountability, which creates a culture where employees feel disposable rather than valued.

Productivity is prioritized at all costs, even when it undermines trust, well-being, and long-term retention. Burnout is common, and support is minimal. The gap between the organization’s public image and the lived employee experience is striking.

If you are looking for a workplace that values transparency, empathy, and genuine leadership, this is likely not it.

The trauma hospital is held back by lazy, ineffective and toxic management. Favoritism runs rampant, burn out is high and medical staff is overworked and unappreciated. Management gossips and goofs off all day, only coming out of their office long enough to scold staff for not working faster or harder, often dumping their own responsibilities on others. Managers give preferential treatment to employees with little to no medical experience due to personal relationships formed outside of work. They are constantly praised and rewarded while the rest of the staff is bullied and belittled. Medical responsibility is handed over to inexperienced people, putting the lives of some of the shelter's most critical patients at risk. Other more experienced employees are ignored and not given the support or training needed to further their skills and advance their roles. Speaking up  results in retaliation, causing skilled and experienced employees to leave. 

You are the first people there and typically the last ones to leave. Work can be hard, especially working outside in extreme weather. The culture of AHS seems welcoming and the animal interactions you have are usually pleasant. Other departments are typically much better off. 

Overall, I resigned after management kept ignoring safety concerns I had for the animals. Animals ended up dying on the adoption floor and this is 100% unacceptable practice. This would be a great place if animal care was not left unsupported and left out to dry by management. They will not have your back or the safety of animals in their interest.

These concerns apply to the South Mountain Campus for "Compassion" and the direct effects that the Animal Care management has on its employees and the lively hood of animals. They will lie/cheat their way to make themselves look good and give zero care about their people or the animals.

I worked at AHS for almost a year and while I loved my team and my job itself the environment is very stressful and management is hit and miss. Animal Care and Medical staff do not get along very well, there is always tension between the two departments. Management can be inconsistent and unreliable at times. Be prepared to be faced with difficult situations and lots of hard work. This job is not for the faint of heart. But if you love animals and are dedicated to their welfare this is the job for you. There may be times where you may disagree with decisions made by the company or medical stuff but at the end of the day a very rewarding job. This is a non-profit so do not expect to be compensated highly. Benefits are great and discounts are offered to employees. Great opportunity to get your foot in the door of the animal welfare world

Pros: Enjoyed the sense of helping and compassion working with animals, team members and volunteers. The benefits and extra perks are nice. My goals were to stay in animal care until I could move onto behavioral or vet tech. After 90 days you can shadow other departments. If I were to choose a location to work, it would be Papago Park as it is held to the highest standards.
Cons: Minimal training, management spread thin and don't feel like you're supported. A lot of the training is supposed to be marked off between 30/60/90 days along with a 30 day 1x1. These were either not done in the timely manner or rushed through. Miscommunication with management and staff when those training days were happening. The job is pretty laborious in regards to movement/walking, I averaged about 7 miles a day while working about half that in the sun.
Overall I just felt a huge disconnect from management and staff. A lot of complaints from staff but always summarized with "that's just how it is". 


Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Veterinary technician 5 salaries reported	$22.60 per hour
Veterinary technician ii 8 salaries reported	$23.38 per hour
Animal adoption specialist 6 salaries reported	$18.67 per hour
Thrift store associate 5 salaries reported	$17.80 per hour
Animal care specialist 5 salaries reported	$15.00 per hour

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