Adoptions Counselor

Butte Humane Society is currently hiring for an Adoption Counselor Do you have animal handling experience in a professional setting? Are you an animal lover? Do you want to help care for shelter pets at BHS while they await their forever homes? Are you interested in helping adopters find the perfect pet? Do you enjoy working as part of a team? If you answered yes to all of those, then this may be the job for you Please see the job description below and apply

The schedule for this role is Monday and Tuesday 7am-12pm, Friday 1pm-6pm and Saturday 12pm-5pm.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES

It will be the responsibility of the Adoption Counselor to perform adoption counseling and animal care services for Butte Humane Society (BHS) under the direction of the department manager. Individuals in this classification will perform various tasks related to animal care, counseling potential adopters, administrative duties, customer service, and animal handling for both shelter cats and dogs. Individuals will be expected to provide prompt and courteous customer service as well as conduct themselves in a professional manner at all times.

CHARACTERISTICS
- Extreme passion for our agency’s mission of finding homes, saving lives and inspiring compassion.
- Proven ability to exercise good judgement when dealing with the public, staff, volunteers, and confidential information.
- A love of animals without bias against specific breeds/sizes.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills as well as ability to communicate with people from all backgrounds.
- Ability to maintain a professional demeanor with the public, volunteers, and other staff members.
- Ability to problem solve and face challenging situations in a calm and mature manner.
- Self-motivated and proactive work ethic as well as ability to work independently.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
- Participates in every aspect of care for our shelter animals while they are with Butte Humane Society, including cleaning, feeding, socialization and enrichment.
- Socialize and handling animals, assist with tests related to animal temperament, dispense and administer vaccines and preventatives.
- Coordinate adoption appointments with adopters.
- Listen to customers and provide effective responses and remedies to their questions and needs in person and over the phone.
- Counsel potential adopters on adoption process as well as all BHS policies and procedures, educate customers of topics related to adopting shelter animals, evaluate adopter surveys against animal behavior and personality tests using established criteria to create a long lasting human/animal match.
- Commit to a high standard of safety and follow all established safety procedures and protocols. Take immediate action to address any safety concerns that could put a staff member, volunteer, customer, animal, or the organization at risk.
- Solicit donations from customers and accept in-kind donations as needed.
- Basic clerical and administrative tasks such as cash handling, data entry, filing, opening and closing procedures, and keeping a clean and organized work station.
- Cultivate positive client, volunteer, and coworker relations through professional, courteous, and educational interactions.
- Responsible for knowing when animals are available as well as know their personalities and temperament.
- Perform additional tasks given.

ANIMAL CARE:

- Clean, disinfect, and maintain shelter cages/kennels each day.
- Provide adequate food and water to shelter animals daily.
- Follow established disease control protocols to clean, disinfect, and maintain shelter cages/kennels each day.
- Monitor animals and immediately report health or behavior abnormalities to supervisor.
- Participate in stress and disease reduction efforts through purposeful and compassionate handling and placement of animals in the shelter environment.
- Assist with animal intake, evaluation, and treatment as needed.
- Operate laundry and dish washing equipment.
- Restock cleaning areas with supplies and equipment.
- Maintain equipment in working condition; report equipment or supply needs to supervisor.
- Maintain BHS in a clean and organized manner to present BHS and our adoptable pets in an appealing way.

PROFESSIONAL PERFORMANCE
- Maintain professional standards of performance, demeanor and appearance at all times.
- Complete tasks and responsibilities in a timely and efficient manner, comply with agency policies and standards, and meet the requirements of the position.
- Maintain a creative, cooperative approach to the position and seek to bring a constructive, problem-solving mentality to all tasks.

SKILLS, REQUIREMENTS, AND ABILITIES
- 18 years of age or older.
- High School Diploma or equivalent.
- Ability to lift a minimum of 50 pounds, sit/stand for long periods of time, and possess willingness/ability to humanely handle possibly feral cats and large (60+ lbs.), strong dogs (rarely) in an effective manner.
- Ability and willingness to work