Behavior & Placement Technician

Looking to make a difference in the lives of pets and people? With an almost year‑round beautiful blue sky and a scenic mountain backdrop, HSPPR is a nonprofit animal shelter serving El Paso, Pueblo, and Douglas Counties as well as the City of Centennial in the colorful State of Colorado. We employ a total of 200+ employees. We are an organization that celebrates and prioritizes diversity and inclusion.

HSPPR welcomes you to apply for this exciting opportunity at our socially conscious organization.

The Behavior & Placement Technician is responsible for performing all duties related to processing and behavior assessments of animals in the shelter; assessing the initial health and behavior of animals and monitors changes. The Behavior & Placement Technician ensures an environment of compassionate and respectful animal and people care in accordance with HSPPR's mission, values, goals, and management philosophy.

Daily Animal Care

• Completes intake and follow‑up exams, including daily exam reviews, vaccine boosters, and health and weight checks. Responsible for identifying health and behavior concerns for animals and reporting findings to the veterinary and behavior teams accordingly.
• Works cohesively with multiple departments to assist in the movement of animals throughout the building.
• Participate in activities and behavior support strategies to improve the well‑being of animals within the shelter.
• Periodically covers overnight on‑call emergency animal transport.
• Assess temperament of animals to provide a factual, nonbiased assessment of the animal's behavior.
• Makes appropriate routing decisions for animals based on health, behavior, and other considerations.
• Performs formal behavioral evaluations for dogs in accordance with PCAT assessment procedures, ensuring objective language is used when entering data for memos and assessments.
• Performs informal behavioral evaluations for cats. Properly maintains equipment used.
• Restocks all supply items daily. Report any need for ordering, maintenance, and inventory of supplies and equipment.
• Serves as the Euthanasia Lead, performing humane euthanasia of animals, proper care and disposal of deceased animals in accordance with current HSPPR Humane Euthanasia Standard Operating Procedures and HSUS guidelines for best practices.
• Provides behavior support & enrichment to all animals actively enrolled to receive behavior accommodations.
• Consults adopters and patrons on behavior management to promote success in the home.
• Train staff and volunteers to safely handle animals.
• Assist in animal handling requests for dangerous or fractious animals in care.
• Assist with population reporting as requested.

Other:

• Commitment to the mission, values, goals, and success of HSPPR.
• Appropriately documents observed animal behaviors utilizing objective language as required in relevant procedures and/or policies.
• Perform all other duties as assigned.

None

• The employee must regularly lift and/or move 25 or more pounds of moving weight and occasionally lift and/or move up to 40 or more pounds of moving weight.
• Occasionally required to climb or balance, stoop, kneel, crouch, crawl, smell, talk, and hear.
• Occasionally required to sit, reach with hands and arms.
• Frequently required to stand and walk, expected to be on feet for extended periods of time.
• Must be able to use both hands and arms to grip, pull and push utilizing safety equipment such as, but not limited to catch poles, snappy snares, leashes, ropes, muzzles.
• Consistently exposed to animals in the workplace and animal allergens under conditions with limited alternatives available.
• Specific vision abilities required include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision and depth perception.
• Must handle various animals of various sizes and temperaments.
• Potential exposure to zoonotic diseases.
• Regularly exposed to noise and potential exposure to hazardous weather conditions.
• Potential exposure to cleaning supplies and/or other substances containing toxic or caustic chemicals.
• Periodically drives for extended periods of time.

• Required to be…